An Aussie fungus among us.

An Ausie fungus among us

An Australian fungus that kills crop-destroying grasshoppers shows promise as a natural pesticide in the United states, according to scientists performing field trials in North Dakota. The fungus,

Entomophaga grylli, produces a cocktail of enzymes capable of penetrating a grasshopper's tough outer skeleton. Having gotten through this protective barrier, the fungus circulates in the insect's blood, attacking body tissues and fat reserves. The grasshopper dies within a week, but the fungus lives on, producing spores that spread in the environment and attack other grasshoppers in the area.

Laboratory studies indicate the australian fungus, like its U.S. relatives, does not harm other insects. Field studies, begun last month in outdoor cages containing carefully censused insect populations, so far confirm that the fungus affects only grasshoppers, reports Ray Carruthers of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Plant Protection Research Laboratory in Ithaca, N.Y. The Australian variety kills a wider spectrum in harmful hoppers, spreads more efficiently to new hoppers and appears more heat resistant than U.S. strains of E. grylli, Carruthers adds. Some grasshoppers survive exposure to the U.S. fungus by "sunning" themselves for a few hours and raising their body temperature to about 100[deg.]F -- a level comfortable for a grasshopper but lethal to the American fungus.

Once the U.S. scientists confirm the Aussie fungus' safety, they hope to infect batches of grasshoppers in laboratories, then release them in crop areas plagued by the voracious pests.