Mycopathogens for Biological Control of Mound Building Termites in an Agroforest Ecosystem

Jump To References Section

Authors

  • Directorate of Extension, EEU, Hebbal, Bangalore - 560 024 ,IN
  • Department of Entomology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore - 641 003 ,IN
  • Department of Entomology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore - 641 003 ,IN

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18311/jbc/1992/15180

Keywords:

Odontotermes wattonensis, O. obesus, O. brunneus, Susceptibility, Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium antsopliae, M. flavoviride, Paecilomyces lilacinus, P. fumosoroseus.

Abstract

Although five entomogenous fungi were pathogenic to the three mound building termites i.e. Odontotermes wallonensis (Wasmann), O. obesus (Rambur) and O. brunneus (Hagen), only Beauveria bassiana (Bals.) Vuill, and Metarhizium anisopliae (Metsch.) Sorokin var. anisopliae were highly virulent when compared to M. flavoviride Gams Rozypal var. minus, Paecilomyces lilacinus (Thom.) Samson and P. fumosoroseus (Wize) Brown and Smith. Among the three mound building termite species, O. brunneus was the most susceptible followed by O. wallonensis and O. obesus. This was confirmed through bioassay studies with the different isolates of B. bassiana and M. anisoplieae. Bapatla isolate of B. bassiana with the lowest LC50 and LT50 values was the most effective against all the three termite species tested.