Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2019) 8(9): 1060-1071 1060 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2019.809.124 Efficacy of Entomopathogenic Fungi, Beauveria bassiana against Maruca vitrata (Geyer) under Laboratory Condition K. Haripriya 1* , S. Jeyarani 1 , S. Mohankumar 2 and R. P. Soundararajan 3 1 Department of Agricultural Entomology, 2 Center for Plant Molecular Biology & Biotechnology, 3 Department of rice, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore- 641003, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction The spotted pod borer, commonly known as legume pod borer, M. vitrata (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) is a serious pest of grain legumes in the tropics and subtropics due to its extensive host range, distribution and destructiveness. The larvae damage the flower buds, flowers and immature pods by webbing and contaminate with their excreta (Rekha and Mallapur, 2007). The grain yield loss due to legume pod borer was estimated to be 10.0 to 80.0 per cent in various crops (Singh and Allen, 1980; Sharma, 1998). Webbings of flowers and pods during feeding makes the pest hard to reach and hence makes the management difficult (Sharma, 1998). However, the pest is still being managed by means of insecticides only (Jakhar et al., 2016). Preference of insecticides depends on their easy availability and applicability, but their excessive and indiscriminate use resulted in the development of insecticidal resistance in most of the pests and environmental pollution (Phokela et al., 1990; Sharma et al., 2002). The increasing concern about International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 8 Number 09 (2019) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com Pathogenecity of entomopathogenic fungi, Beauveria bassiana isolates (Bb111, Bb112, Bb 113 and Bb 114) were assessed against spotted pod borer, Maruca vitrata (Geyer). Bioassays were performed in five different pulse hosts viz., lablab, cowpea, green gram, black gram and pigeonpea against third, fourth and fifth instar larvae of spotted pod borer. Efficacy of Bb 112 was higher irrespective of the pulses tested. The median lethal concentrations of Bb 112 for third, fourth and fifth instar larvae on different pulses viz., lablab, cowpea, black gram, green gram and pigeonpea were in range of 0.10 x 10 8 to 2. 04 x 10 8 , 0.14 x 10 8 to 2.67 x 10 8 and 0.20 x 10 8 to 4.80 x 10 8 spores ml -1 , respectively. Keywords Maruca vitrata, Beauveria bassiana, LC 50 and LT50 Accepted: 12 August 2019 Available Online: 10 September 2019 Article Info