Virulence of Native Isolates of Metarhizium anisopliae (Metschnikoff) against Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in Western Uttar Pradesh, India
Ravi Shanker *
Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh-250110, India.
Rajendra Singh *
Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh-250110, India.
Malayaj R. Prajapati
Division of Microbial and Environmental Biotechnology, College of Biotechnology, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh-250110, India.
Reetesh Pratap Singh
Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh-250110, India.
Aditya Patel
Department of Entomology, Narayan Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Gopal Narayan Singh University, Sasaram, Bihar-821305, India.
Omkar Singh
Department of Soil Science, College of Agriculture, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh-250110, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The Chickpea pod borer, Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is a destructive pest of chickpeas that has proven difficult to control using conventional methods. We isolate and evaluate the virulence of five isolates of M. anisopliae against larvae of H. armigera. All isolates of M. anisopliae, SVPUAT 1, SVPUAT 2, SVPUAT 3, SVPUAT 4 and SVPUAT 5 were most effective against second instar, H. armigera at 2 ×108 conidia/ml. Among the all isolates, SVPUAT 1 Accession no. ON183248 had the highest virulence 100 percent mortality; whereas, LT50 and LT90 were 3.16 and 5.16 days.
Keywords: Isolate, H. armigera, M. anisopliae, mortality