ISSN 2736-1756
Advanced Journal of Microbiology Research ISSN 2241-9837 Vol. 13 (2), pp. 001-005, February, 2019. © International Scholars Journals
Full Length Research Paper
Potential of Beauveria bassiana as a biological control agent against two important and destructive stored pests’ C. maculatus and S. granarius adults
Golnaz Shams1*, Mohammad Hassan Safaralizadeh2, Sohrab Imani1, Mahmoud Shojai1 and Shahram Aramideh2
1Department of Entomology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
2Department of Plant Protection, Agricultural Faculty, Urmia University, Urmia, West Azerbaijan, Iran.
Accepted 03 Jaunary, 2019
Abstract
This research was carried out to evaluate the suppressive efficacy of entomopathogenic fungi Beauveria bassiana against adults of Callosobruchus maculatus (F.) and Sitophilus granarius (L.) on stored grains in darkness (27±2°C and 65±5% RH) . The insects were inoculated by following immersion in five aqueous suspensions with concentrations determined with preliminary tests and compared with untreated wheat and cowpea as control. Probit analysis showed that the lowest LT 50 values in suspensions with highest concentrations (2.3 × 107 conidia ml-1) were 6.63 and 10.45 days for C. maculatus and S. granarius, respectively. On the other hand, the LC50 values on day 9 post-treatment were 3.17 × 106 and 6.08 × 107 con.ml-1 for C. maculatus and S. granarius, respectively. Comparison of Lc50, LT 50 values and mortalities indicated that in both assays, B. bassiana was consistently more virulent for C. maculatus than S. granarius. The overall results showed that these two pests were controlled successfully with entomopathogenic fungi Beauveria bassiana.
Key words: Callosobruchus maculatus, Beauveria bassiana, Sitophilus granarius, stored grain.