Beauveria bassiana (Bals.) and Metarhizium
anisopliae (Met.) Sorokin are two species of
entomopathogenic fungi, belonging to the
Hyphomycetes group, that are natural inhabitants
of soil, where they are found infecting
a wide range of insect species that spend at
least one stage of their life cycle in the soil.
They are also found in agricultural crops as
epizooties on defoliator lepidopteran larval
populations.