Research Article

**Biodiversity and Pathogenicity Potential of Mycoflora Associated with Brahmina coriacea in Potato Fields of North-Western Indian Hills**

Anupam Sharma, V.K. Chandla and D.R. Thakur

In the present study, the occurrence and diversity of fungi associated with beetles and white grub, Brahmina coriacea (Hope) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) in potato fields of North Western Indian hills was explored for the first time. Sixteen species belonging to 9 genera and two non-sporulating fungi were isolated and identified from white grub cadavers, adult beetles and soil samples in question. Total 1404 out of 14164 (9.91%) beetles were found infected with fungi during year 2007-09 at studied areas. Most abundantly occurring fungi associated with beetles were Metarhizium anisopliae, 423 out of 1404 (30.12%); followed by Aspergillus flavus, 322 (23.0%); Fusarium oxysporum, 262 (18.66%); Beauveria bassiana, 143 (10.2%); Aspergillus clavatus, 130 (9.25%) and Fusarium solani, 120 (8.6%). Whereas, 21 out of 1351 (1.6%) white grubs were found infected with fungi. A. clavatus showed high frequency of infection to grubs (33.8%), followed by A. flavus, (23.8%) and Rhizopus oryzae, (19.04%). Each Aspergillus niger and Alternaria alternata showed an infection frequency of 9.53% while 4.8% was noticed for Penicillium griseofulvum. Total ten fungi were identified from soil samples with high frequency of R. oryzae (27.60%) and Cunninghamella elegans (24.13%). Preliminary pathogenicity tests were performed on late first instar grubs for all isolated fungi except non-sporulating. B. bassiana was found highly pathogenic with 63.70% mortalities followed by 60.37% by A. flavus and 50.00% by M. anisopliae after 15 days of treatment. F. oxysporum and F. solani showed mortalities up to 49.63 and 42.59%, respectively.

PDF Fulltext XML References Citation

How to cite this article

Anupam Sharma, V.K. Chandla and D.R. Thakur, 2012. Biodiversity and Pathogenicity Potential of Mycoflora Associated with Brahmina coriacea in Potato Fields of North-Western Indian Hills. Journal of Entomology, 9: 319-331.

DOI: 10.3923/je.2012.319.331

URL: https://scialert.net/abstract/?doi=je.2012.319.331

Journal of Entomology

Article Trend

Total views 1044

Search

Authors

Anupam Sharma

V.K. Chandla

D.R. Thakur

Keywords

Research Article

**Biodiversity and Pathogenicity Potential of Mycoflora Associated with Brahmina coriacea in Potato Fields of North-Western Indian Hills**

How to cite this article

Related Articles

Leave a Comment