STUDIES ON THE ENDOPHYTIC PROPERTIES OF ENTOMOPATHOGENIC FUNGI, BEAUVERIA BASSIANA (BALSAMO) AGAINST BANANA PSEUDOSTEM WEEVIL, ODOIPOROUS LONGICOLLIS OLIVIER

Beauveria baisiona (Balsam()) Vuillemin, is a highly effective entomopathogenic for a wide range of insects, gaining commercial importance as a fungal bio pesticide. Artificial inoculation of entomopathoeenic B. hassiana as endophyte was successful in tissue culture banana plants. A number of studies have revealed the potential of B. bassiana for use against the banana pseudostem weevil, Odoiporous longeoilis in banana but the conventional application method of B. bassiana is impractical in terms of its cost of application. This can be significantly reduced by establishing its endophytic action through artificial inoculation in banana and plantain (Musa sp.) tissue culture. Based on this concept. a preliminary study was carried out under laboratory condition on the method of applicaiion of B. bassiana to establish its endophytic action, colonization rate at different parts of plant applied in various dosages and finally causing the mortality of banana weevil. The results revealed that,B. bassiana could be re-isolated from plant tissue up to four months when tissue-culture plantiets were exposed by injected, solid substrate and dipping method in a spore suspensioa of B. bassianu. The highest colonization of B. bassiana was recorded in the rhizome dippim.r method (77%) compared to injection method (59%) and solid substrate method (50%). Similarly, colonization Tate was increased proportionately with an increase of dosage and time of exposure

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Not AvailableTrichogramma pretiosum Riley is an important egg parasitoid on lepidopterans. Biological attributes of arrhenotokous and thelytokous T. pretiosum, was studied on Corcyra cephalonica under laboratory condition. The adult longevity in arrhenotokous and thelytokous T. pretiosum were 10.4 days and 10 days, respectively. The total female progeny produced during entire life span was 147.08 in thelytokous T. pretiosum and 90 in arrhenotokous T. pretiosum. The sex ratio of arrhenotokous T. pretiosum was 1:1 while for thelytokous it was 5:95 (M/F). The intrinsic rate of increase was 0.42 in arrhenotokous T. pretiosum and 0.48 in thelytokous T. pretiosum. These results revealed that in the net reproductive rate, weekly multiplication rate and the number of estimates in F2 generation are more in thelytokous T. pretiosum compared to arrhenotokous T. pretiosum. These results confirmed that biological attributes of arrhenotokous and thelytokous T. pretiosum are different. Thelytokous T. pretiosum have more practical implications in the field of biological control.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableStudies were carried out to assess biological attributes of arrhenotokous (sexual) and thelytokous (asexual) forms of Trichogramma pretiosum Riley under the laboratory conditions. Selected arrhenotokous and thelytokous T. pretiosum was used in studies of finding the per cent parasitism, per cent desiccation, sex ratio, per cent emergence and per cent male and female emergence on the five selected different sized containers under constant and variable number of host parasitoids release. The mean percent parasitization in arrhenotokous species varied from 24.2 - 47.8% from all five different sized containers under both constant and variable no of releases as compare to 45.3 - 62.2 % in the lytokous species. The mean number of days to adult emergence ranged from 10.05 to 10.3 under both constant and variable number of parasitoid release in both the species of Trichogramma pretiosum. In both forms of T. pretiosum the per cent desiccated eggs increased as the size of three containers increased.Not Availabl