Evaluation of culture filtrates of Culicinomyces clavisporus: Mycoadulticide for Culex quinquefasciatus, Aedes aegypti and Anopheles stephensi

Abstract

The Culicinomyces clavisporus is a fungal pathogen of a wide range of mosquito larvae. The C. clavisporus was isolated from the larvae of Culiseta inornata. We have investigated into potential pathogenicity against the adults of Culex quinquefasciatus, Aedes aegypti and Anopheles stephensi. The culture filtrates released from the strain of C. clavisporus 46258 were grown in the EmYPss broth, were filtered and used for the bioassays after a growth of 15days. The results demonstrated these metabolites with LC(50), LC(90) and LC(99) values of C. quinquefasciatus, 5.62, 8.71 and 12.59, A. aegypti, 3.0, 7.0 and 9.3, and A. stephensi 2.69, 6.0 and 7.24μl/cm(2), respectively after exposure for 24h. These results compared favorably with the commercial adulticide Gokilaht(®)-S 5EC (d,d-trans-cyphenothrin) that showed 100% mortality at the same concentration. This study successfully identified that the metabolites of C. clavisporus can be used as mosquitoes adulticide as safer alternative to modern synthetic chemical insecticide against mosquito vector of diseases. Further purification can lead to biotechnological exploitation.