Abstract: Entomopathogenic fungi in the genus Metarhizium are a common and promising green biological control agent with high economic and ecological value. In order to determine the biodiversity of Metarhizium in China, the Metarhizium was isolated and purified by selective culture from soil samples collected from different habitats in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Tibet, Hubei, Hunan, Hainan, Hebei, Henan and Tianjin. The Metarhizium was identified by morphology and molecular biology using ITS1 and ITS4 sequences. Then the biodiversity was evaluated with the Shannon Weiner, Berger-Parker and Pielou on the basis of analysing the homology and constructing the phylogenetic tree of ITS1 and ITS4 sequences by Neighbor-Joining (NJ) method with MEGA. The result showed that 222 strains of Mertarhizium were isolated from 607 soil samples, among which there were 130 strains of M. anisopliae, which is the dominant species with a Berger-Parker value of 0.586, 83 strains of M. marquandii, 7 strains of M. flavoviride, and 2 strains of M. robertsii. The Shannon-Wiener of fallow land, farmland, orchard, grassland, and woodland were 0.451, 0.677, 0.683, 0.843, and 0.983, respectively, indicating that the wood land is of the highest species richness. And the Pielou of the above habitats were 0.325, 0.488, 0.493, 0.608, and 0.709, respectively, showing that the Metarhizium species distribution in woodland is the most homogeneous.

Key words: Metarhizium, entomogenous fungi, biodiversity