Potential of Fungus Metarhizium Brunneum Petch as Bio Insectisides to Control Termite Macrotermes Gilvus Hagen in Castor Plantation

Abstract

One of the important pest of castor plant (Jatropha curcas L) in Indonesia is termite Macrotermes gilvus. While entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium brunneum has been proven effective against this termite and the subterranean termite M. gilvus in the laboratory, the performance of the fungus in the field need to be studied. The aims of the research are to investigate the cruising distance and colony population of M. gilvus before and after application of M. brunneum. Triple mark recapture technique has been used to predict the termite colony population size. The suspension of fungi at density 1,21x106 conidia ml-1 was poured at each experimental station (150 ml per station). The result showed that in block I (15,210 m2), block II (5,700 m2), block III (27,000 m2); 8, 1 and 15 termite colonies have been detected respectively from which, 150,388; 59,219; and 149,459 individual were found. In block I, the termites cruised as far as 140,5 m, as compared to 140 m in block III. In all blocks, we noted the significant decrease of termite population after application of M. brunneum, from initial population 359,066 to 15,015 individual