Effectiveness of beauveria bassiana against cotton whitefly,bemisia tabaci (gennadius) (aleyrodidae: Homoptera) on different host plants

Bemisia tabaci is an important polyphagous sucking insect pest and vector for plant diseases. due to indiscriminate use of insecticides,whitefly has developed resistance against different groups of insecticides. there is a need of effective alternative and an environmentally safe pest management strategy. among different management programs the use of entomopathogenic fungi,or the microbial control is ecofriendly and safe for life. this study was primarily based on the application of different isolates of entomopathogenic fungi,beauveria bassiana against different life stages of b. tabaci on different host plants i.e. gossypium hirsutum,lycopersicum esculentum,solanum melongena and capsicum annum. the results showed b. bassiana isolate (bb-01) to be the most effective with lc50 value (2.4×107 spores/ml) which caused highest mortality of eggs (65.30%) and nymphs (88.82%) with lc50 value (2.7×106 spores/ml) and lt50 5.40 at 2×108 on g. hirsutum in comparison to other hosts. in addition,the different plant hosts i.e.,g. hirsutum,l. esculentum,s. melongena and c. annum affected the egg and nymphs as response was concentration dependent and mortality rates were highly significant.