Characterization and Bio-efficacy of Naturally Occurring Fungus Against Spilosoma obliqua

The fungus Beauveria bassiana was evaluated and found very effective against Spilosol11a obliqua resulting 80% mortality at 4.4 x 4 x 10⁸ conidial ml concentration. The comparative effect of the fungus was carried out with different synthetic insecticides and bio-pesticides against 2^nd instar larvae of S. obliqua. Chlorpyriphos @ 0.05% and endosulfan @ 0.052% was superior over B. bassiana providing 100% mortality, whereas B. bassiana was at par with carbaryl 0.2% and Btk 0.1% which gave the mortality of 73.3% 96 hrs after treatment.