Exploring Biocontrol Potential of Fungal Entomopathogen, Beauveria bassiana gainst Lepidopteran Pests of Oil Palm

Oil palm, Elaeis guineensis (Jacq.) is an exotic high yielding perennial crop introduced into India as an irrigated crop. The present study reports the results on the efficacy of fungal biocontrol agent, Beauveria bassiana on the Lepidopteran pests of oil palm. Application of microbial agent against the lepidopteron pests of oil palm namely psychid, leaf web worm and slug caterpillar was found to be effective at 10⁻¹ dilution. This dilution caused quick mortality within four days of application indicating the efficacy of fungus with a spore count of 10⁶. With the slight reduction in the spore count, the occurrence of death was prolonged indicating the necessity of required number of spores for causing the disease leading to death of the organism. The study also confirmed that the extraction of fungus from the dead insect specimens by re-inoculation method was possible. Antagonistic studies envisaged that Beauveria bassiana cannot be applied in the field along with Trichoderma viride as the latter is a biofungicide which suppresses the multiplication of Beauveria bassiana.