Effect of entomopathogenic fungi on Pectinophora gossypiella (Lepidoptera : Gelechiidae)‎ and Earias insulana (Lepidoptera : Noctuidae)‎ and their predators

Abstract EN

Entomopathogenic fungi infect and kill insect pests in the green house and used as agents for biological control.

The aim of this work is to study the toxicity of serial concentrations of fungal spore suspension of both Metarhizium anisopliae and Paceilomyces lilicanus against the newly hatched larvae of pink bollworm (PBW) Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) and spiny bollworm Earias insulana (Boisduval (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in addition to the effect of the two fungi on green lacewing, Chrysoperla carnea (Stephens) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) eggs and larvae and on ladybird beetle Coccinella septempunctata L.

(Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) eggs.

Results showed that the toxicity of P.

lilicanus was higher on P.

gossypiella treatment; wheras the toxicity of M.

anisopliae was higher in case of E.

insulana treatment.

On the other hand, the effect of the two fungi on C.

carnea eggs was obvious effective, whereas, C.

septempunctata was not affected after the same egg's treatment.