Suitability of different synthetic and grain based liquid media for the mass culture of entomopathogenic fungi, Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo) Vuillemin and Metarhizium anisopliae (Metschnikoff) Sorokin

Among ten synthetic media tested, sabouraud dextrose medium with yeast extract was signifcantly superior over all other media for both the entomogenous fungi and supported the maximum biomass (1.13 g, 1.00 g), conidial count (5.10 × 10⁷, 4.80 × 10⁷ conidia ml⁻¹) and viability of conidia (94.33, 92%) for B. bassiana and M. anisopliae respectively. Czapek dox medium was least suitable medium for growth and sporulation of entomogenous fungi. In all media addition of yeast increased the growth of fungi. Among 8 grain based media, for B. bassiana chickpea was the best culture medium giving highest biomass (0.80 g) and viability (87.00%) whereas the highest conidial count (6.9 × 10⁷ conidia ml¹) was observed in case of cowpea. for the growth and sporulation of M. anisopliae isolate green gram was most suited grain medium with highest biomass (0.87 g), conidial count (6.77 × 10⁷ conidia ml⁻¹) and viability (90.33%).