Bulletin of Insectology 73 (1): 137-148, 2020 ISSN 1721-8861 eISSN 2283-0332 First record of occurrence of Dervishiya cadambae on grapevine, Vitis vinifera, along with its morphological and molecular identification and pathogenicity evaluation potential of Metarhizium brunneum as its biocontrol agent Deependra Singh YADAV 1 , Sagar H. MHASKE 1 , Yogita H. RANADE 1 , Shashikant B. GHULE 1 , Pathour R. SHASHANK 2 , Roman V. YAKOVLEV 3,4 1 ICAR-National Research Centre for Grapes, Manjari Farm PO, Pune, India 2 ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India 3 Altai State University, Barnaul, Russia 4 Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russia Abstract Increasing demand for grapes (Vitis vinifera L.) worldwide makes it a high-value crop and also an important, valuable export commodity for India. In February 2016, a vineyard from Maharashtra, India was identified with entirely new insect damage symp- toms from those observed earlier. After, further inspection, a new type of wood borer was noticed which was later identified as Dervishiya cadambae (Moore) (Lepidoptera Cossidae). D. cadambae is known as a major pest of Tectona grandis L.f. plantations in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu states of India and causes extensive damage to the timber. Surveys were conducted in affected vineyards to assess the extent of infestation from 2016 to 2018. In 20 infested vineyards located in Sangli and Nashik districts of Maharashtra, 12-72% of grapevines were found to have active infestations. Young larvae fed under the bark and later instars bored inside and made galleries. D. cadambae caused extensive damage to the sapwood and heartwood of grapevine stem and reduced both vitality and productivity of the vines. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) barcode for this new pest of grapevines was also provided. The DNA barcode grouped D. cadambae in the clade of Cossidae samples supported with a bootstrap value of 85% in phylogenetic analysis. To our knowledge, this is the first record of D. cadambae occurrence on V. vinifera. A green muscardine fungus was iso- lated from the field infected larvae of D. cadambae. The pathogenicity test confirmed Koch’s postulates. The fungus was identified as Metarhizium brunneum (Petch), which proved to be an efficient antagonist of this pest in laboratory bioassays. Key words: grapevine new pest, wood borer, Cossidae, DNA barcoding, entomopathogenic fungi, bioassay, India. Introduction Vitis vinifera L. vineyard is an important commercial fruit crop in temperate regions and has been adopted in Indian sub-tropical and tropical conditions (Mani et al., 2014). Grapevine cultivation requires high investments and also fetches high returns to the growers. Two spe- cies of wood borers, Celosterna scabrator (F.) and Stromatium barbatum (F.) (Coleoptera Cerambycidae) have been reported causing damage to grapevines (Ranga Rao et al., 1979; Salini and Yadav, 2011). During a survey conducted in February 2016, 48% of grapevines were found infested with a new type of wood borer at Shivani, Sangali, Maharashtra, India. The symptoms of infestation were different from those ob- served previously for cerambycid wood borers infesting grapevines. Farmers at Vijayapura in the Karnataka state of India also reported similar infestation symptoms and presence of red coloured wood borer larvae during April, 2016. The wood borer was later identified as Dervishiya cadambae (Moore) (Lepidoptera Cossidae). The genus Dervishiya Yakovlev was established for Cossus cadambae Moore (type locality- Calcutta) (Ya- kovlev, 2006). Later, two new species from Afghanistan and Pakistan were also described, namely, Dervishiya vartianae Yakovlev (type locality- Afghanistan, Nimla, 40 km SW v. Dschelalabad) and Dervishiya sindhi Ya- kovlev et Saldaitis (type locality- Pakistan, Sindh prov- ince, near Sanghar, Shahdadpur) (Yakovlev, 2011; Ya- kovlev and Saldaitis, 2016). D. cadambae is widespread in India and was also reported for the first time from Sri Lanka (=Ceylon) by Arora (1976). It has been earlier reported to infest Ficus L. (Moraceae), Mangifera indi- ca L. (Anacardiaceae), Diospyros melanoxylon Roxburg (Ebenaceae), Tectona grandis L.f. (Verbenaceae), Nau- clea cadamba Roxburg (Rubiaceae), Grewia tiliaefolia Vahl. (Tiliaceae), Terminalia bellerica Roxburg (Com- bretaceae), Butea monosperma Taub. (Fabaceae) (Gard- ner, 1945; Mathew et al., 1989; Robinson et al., 2001; Santosh and Kumar, 2003). D. cadambae has assumed major pest status in T. grandis plantations in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states of India and cause ex- tensive damage to the timber (Mathew, 1990). T. gran- dis is naturally distributed in the peninsular region of India stretching along the Western Ghats which also has prominent Indian grape growing areas such as Pune and Nashik districts of Maharashtra and Vijayapura district of Karnataka states (Kaosa-ard, 1989; Ratan, 2013). It can be assumed that D. cadambae came from T. grandis and other forest host trees and started infesting nearby vineyards initially and later on increased its spread in other vineyards assuming a major pest status. Systemic work on biology, ecology, and management of D. cadambae in T. grandis was carried out by Mathew (1990). He reported that D. cadambae was emerging as a serious pest of T. grandis in the Kerala