Interaction of some green muscardine fungi with laboratory cultured beneficial insects

Abstract

The entomopathogenic fungi  Metarhizium flavoviride  and Nomuraea rileyi used for the management of fruit borer were tested for their safety to some of the laboratory reared beneficial insects viz., Trichogramma chilonis(Ishii.), egg-larval parasitoid, Chelonus blackburni(Cam.) and  pupal parasitoid, Tetrastichus israeli (Fer.). In the laboratory experiment there was no significant harmful effect on T. chilonis. The variations observed in  parasitoids  were also not significant for many parameters observed. Thus, infection by N. rileyi  did not affect the  development  of parasitoid in the host eggs. Emergence of egg-larval parasitoid C. blackburni from  M. flavoviride  infected  Helicoverpa  larvae was affected by  fungi in laboratory conditions. The emergence of parasitoid from 100 host eggs was  12 to 46 per cent in comparison with control (65%). The fungi  M. flavoviride  and  N. rileyi were not harmful to the adults of  T. israeli  and the variation recorded from control was not significant although adult emergence was affected in the laboratory conditions. As far as  M. flavoviride   was concerned, there was no variations from  control.