Tariq Butt

Tariq Butt is an entomologist in the UK, he is Professor of Biosciences at Swansea University in Wales.

Tariq Butt
Alma materUniversity of Bristol (BSc, PhD)
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Swansea

Career and research

Butt was educated at the University of Bristol where he graduated with a BSc in Botany and Zoology in 1980 and a PhD in the Fungal pathogens of aphids in 1983.[1]

He leads the Biocontrol and Natural Products (BANP) team at Swansea University, he develops new control methods for insect crop pests, particularly with the use entomopathogenic fungi and biopesticides.[2]

Butt identified that the fungus Metarhizium anisopliae can target western flower thrips and vine weevil, both pests of fruit and flower crops.[3] Butt's team have also tested Metarhizium anisopliae and found the V275 strain of the fungus can control insects that are vectors of animal disease, such as biting midges that transmit the Schmallenberg Disease virus.[4]

He has worked with a related fungus species, Metarhizium brunneum, that can attack and kill larvae of Aedes mosquitoes which can transmit the Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika viruses; he found that blastospore of the fungus could penetrate the mosquito larva cuticle and kill the developing insect.[5]

Butt has tested effects of the fungus Beauveria bassiana on waxmoth, a pest of honeybee hives, and found that the moths could become resistant to the pathogenic fungus, but at a cost as the resistant adults did not breed as well as the non resistant.[6]

His group have also used entomopathogenic nematodes together with entomopathogenic fungi to target the large pine weevil which is a major pest of forestry feeding on the bark and stem of young trees,[7] the combination increased the mortality of the weevil and reduced overall control costs.[8]

In 2001 Butt edited a book Fungi as Biocontrol Agents: Progress, Problems and Potential, with Chris Jackson and Naresh Magan, published by CABI Publishing.[9]

Outreach

Appeared in the BBC Two television programme Ecomaths in 2012 with Stefan Gates, talking about how maths is used in his research when testing the mortality of insects in response to different biopesticides.[10]

References
  1. "UPSIGN core Team: Tariq Butt". chemb125.chem.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
  2. "Prof. Tariq M. Butt". www.britmycolsoc.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
  3. "Fungus could protect farm crops". 2010-07-05. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
  4. "Welsh researchers tackle disease that attacks sheep". ITV News. 18 April 2012. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
  5. Batsakis, Anthea (8 July 2016). "Deadly fungal spores stab holes in Zika mosquito larvae". Cosmos Magazine. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
  6. Labmate (30 June 2013). "Good News for Bees as Fungus Could be a Viable Pesticide". Labmate Online. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
  7. "Fungi joins fight to save trees". 2012-01-17. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
  8. Forgrave, Andrew (2015-05-31). "LOOK: Hidden war being waged in Welsh forests as tiny killers target destructive invaders". northwales. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
  9. "Fungi as Biocontrol Agents: Progress, Problems and Potential". cabi.org. Retrieved 20 Jan 2020.
  10. "BBC Two - Ecomaths, Key Stage 3, Maths behind natural pesticides that help biodiversity". BBC. 23 Nov 2012. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
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