T. SWARUPA RANI*, I. PARAMASIVA, K. MANJULA, P. MADHUSUDHAN AND M. RAJASRI

Department of Entomology, ANGRAU-S.V. Agricultural College, Tirupati-517 502.

ABSTRACT

A promising alternative for insect pest control in agriculture is the use of entomopathogenic fungi. The objectives of this work were to isolate and identify strains of entomopathogenic fungi from brown plant hopper, Nilaparvatha lugens in rice ecosystems of Nellore and West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh. Two native strains of entomopathogenic fungi were isolated from the infected BPH cadavers. According to their macroscopic and microscopic traits, one isolate was identified as Beauveria bassiana species (coded as Bb-NLR) and another isolate was identified as Metarhizium anisopliae species (coded as Ma-NLR). Bb-NLR was isolated from a BPH cadaver collected from the Agricultural Research Station (ARS), Nellore, while Ma-NLR was isolated from a BPH cadaver collected from Chinnacherukuru village in T.P. Gudur mandal of Nellore district. No entomopathogenic fungi were recovered from soil samples despite multiple isolations. These native strains offer potential for development of biocontrol agents targeting major rice insect pests.

KEYWORDS: Entomopathogenic fungi, brown planthopper, nilaparvathalugens, morphological identification.