Abstract
The pupae of Spodoptera litura (Fab.), (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), a polyphagous pest affecting common crops in Indian subcontinent, were treated with different concentrations of conidia of four isolates of entomopathogenic fungi belonging to three species, Metarhizium anisopliae var. anisopliae (Metschnikov) Sorokin (ARSEF 7487), Lecanicillium muscarium (Petch) Zare & W Gams (two isolates ARSEF 7037 and ARSEF 6118) and Cordyceps cardinalis Sung & Spatafora (ARSEF 7193) under laboratory conditions. Suspensions (108/ml) of conidia harvested from Sabouraud dextrose agar yeast extract (SDAY) plates resulted in the highest mortality (85.8%) with M. anisopliae and the lowest mortality (57.3%) with C. cardinalis. The values of LC50 and LC90 suggested that M. anisopliae was the most virulent fungal strain followed by L. muscarium (ARSEF 7037). However, C. cardinalis was the least virulent species among the fungi used in the bioassay. In soil bioassays, drenching the soil with conidial suspensions of ARSEF 7487 and ARSEF 7037 (108 conidia/g of soil) reduced the adult emergence from pupa by 81.3% and 72.5%, respectively, while premixing the sterile soil with conidia killed lesser number of pupae (62.9% by ARSEF 7487 and 54.6% by ARSEF 7037). Our findings suggest that M. anisopliae (ARSEF 7487) and L. muscarium (ARSEF 7037) are potent entomopathogens and could be developed into biocontrol agents against rice cutworm in IPM programs.
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Acknowledgments
The work was supported by Research Grant No. F-9/138(62)/2003-EMR1 from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. We are thankful to Dr. R. A. Humber, Curator, ARSEF collection of Entomopathogenic Fungal Cultures, USA for the fungal isolates and suggestions and to Prof. A. K. Singh, Department of Zoology, University of Delhi, India for providing the eggs of S. litura.
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Anand, R., Prasad, B. & Tiwary, B.N. Relative susceptibility of Spodoptera litura pupae to selected entomopathogenic fungi. BioControl 54, 85–92 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-008-9157-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-008-9157-x