<![CDATA[Entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) are important components of soil ecosystems and may support sustainable pest management in agricultural systems. This study characterized culture-recoverable EPF in maize (Zea mays L.) rhizospheric soils collected from 45 points across three elevation zones in West Java, Indonesia, using a spatially nested sampling design. Fungi were isolated by insect baiting with Tenebrio molitor larvae and direct soil plating. The isolates recovered were assigned to genera based on colony morphology and microscopic characteristics. Four EPF genera— Verticillium, Paecilomyces, Beauveria, and Metarhizium—were detected, with 34/45 samples (75.6%) positive for at least one recoverable EPF. Recovery outcomes, genus richness, and assemblage composition varied among sampling locations. Jaccard-based principal coordinates analysis of EPF-positive samples indicated that compositional differentiation was more evident among locations sampled than broader elevation-zone groupings. Soil surface temperature and relative humidity were the environmental variables with the strongest fit within the ordination space, suggesting that local microclimatic conditions co-varied with culture-recoverable EPF assemblage patterns. Overall, this study provides a baseline ecological characterization of culture-recoverable, morphology-based EPF patterns in tropical maize rhizospheric soils.]]>
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