A new record of white muscardine fungus on internode borer of sugarcane

Abstract

The white muscardine fungus,Beauveria bassiana (Bals.) Vuill., was recorded for the first time on sugarcane internode borer,Chilo sacchariphagus indicus (Kapur) in a field survey conducted at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. In laboratory tests, the fungus caused 10.0 to 93.3% mortality in third instar larvae and 3.3 to 100.0% mortality in fourth instar larvae when treated at 104–109 spores/ml. The incubation period varied from 6.2 to 13.0 days in third instar and 5.8 to 10.0 days in fourth instar. The mean spore production/larva varied from 0.04 × 109 to 0.72 × 109 in third instar and 0.11 × 109 to 3.44 × 109 spores/larva in fourth instar.