Abstract
Beauveria bassiana, was isolated from the infected pupal cadavers of Ectropis deodarae (Lepidoptera: Geometridae), a defoliator of Cedrus deodara, from Jhungi area of Sundernagar Forest Division, Himachal Pradesh. The native isolate of the fungus was tested to assess its virulence on Acraea issoria (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), commonly known as Yellow Coster. A dose mortality bioassay experiment using seven doses of Beauveria bassiana was conducted on third instar larvae of the butterfly that defoliate Debregeasia hypoleuca in and around Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. Results indicate that 76% larval mortality is possible using 6.77 Spores/ml of aqueous solution of this entomopathogenic fungus. The LD50, calculated using ‘Probit Analysis’ was 3E+07 spores per ml. of water suspension and at 95% confidence, the lower limit is 3E+06 (2983882.87517) and upper limit is 1.9E+08 (186770301.094). This study indicates that the Jhungi isolate of Beauveria bassiana would be an effective microbial pathogen to control the lepidopteran defoliator.
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