Volume 1 Number 2 p-ISSN: 2549-1849 | e-ISSN: 2549-3434 31 Received: 18 November 2017; Reviewed: 9 March 2018; Approved: 10 March 2018 http://jurnal.unimed.ac.id/2012/index.php/jcrs/article/view/9627 MORPHOLOGY VARIATION OF METARHIZIUM ANISOPLIAE FROM SOIL IN NORTH SUMATRA AREAS Desianty Dona Normalisa Sirait 1* , Maryani Cyccu Tobing 2 , Irda Safni 2 1 Post Graduate of Agrotechnology, Agriculture Faculty, University of North Sumatra, Medan, Indonesia 2 Agrotechnology Department, Agriculture Faculty, University of North Sumatra, Medan, Indonesia *Corresponding Author: desianty_dns@yahoo.com Abstract Metarhizium anisopliae is an important entomopathogenic fungus that mainly used for biological control. Isolates of M. anisopliae extracted from soil from 15 oil palm plantations located in several districts on the Province of North Sumatra, Indonesia have been investigated to identify their morphological diversity. The morphology of assessed fungi was constructed in the the form of conidia, conidia size, color and shape colony and growth diameter of the 15 isolates. All of conidia forms showed cylindrical shape and string together. The length/width (μm) ratio of conidia size was minimum 2,16 and maximum 3,54. The highest growth rate isolates were found in M3 (Bandar Selamat) and M12 (Mancang) treatment and the lowest rate was M11 (Teluk Parit Kaca) treatment. The color of colonies were varied among the isolates. They were greenish yellow, dark green, yellowish and showing zonation/no zonation. Keywords : Metarhizium anisopliae, biological character, morphological diversity 1. INTRODUCTION Currently, the development of several biological controls as one of the benefits of integrated pest management is increasing. This is done to reduce or eliminate the use of chemical pesticides, both on agricultural land and forestry, so that the impact is less to human health and the environment (Sapna Bai et al., 2015). The entomopathogenic fungi, M. anisopliae, was discovered by Sorokin in 1883, has a wide range of hosts. This fungus is widely used as a biological agent throughout the world, mainly as an inundation control (Hoe et al., 2009; Zimmermann, 2007). Microbial control is an aspect of biological insect control and consists of the rational use of pathogens to maintain pest balances in agricultural environments, with increaes in the numbers of other natural enemies often being observed in fields where microbial control has been used (Tiago et al., 2014). Metarhizium is wide spread in nature and is found in soil, at the rhizosphere of plants or athropod cadavers as saprophyte and parasitizes a broad range of insect. Metharizium grows vegetatively as hyphae producing mycelia and conidia that are the infective propagules on arthropods host and culture media. Although the overal host range of M. anisopliae is broad, individual strains can target only particular hosts (Schrank et al., 2010). The aim of this study was to establish the level of diversity among several isolates of M. anisopliae, isolated from various locations of oil palm plantations. 2. MATERIALS AND METHODS. 2.1. Isolation of M. Anisopliae from Soil Samples of Several Districts M. anisopliae was obtained from the isolation of soil samples obtained from the palm oil plantation from 5 (five) districts of North Sumatra province where samples from each district were taken from 3 (three) subdistricts and each district was taken 1 (one) village. Soil samples were taken around the roots of the plant by using a small shovel at a depth of 10-15. Then put in a plastic bag and labeled according to the sampling location and time. The soil sample is taken to the laboratory and stirred until it is flat (composited). Isolation of M. anisopliae was performed by modifying the larvae T. molitor trap method proposed by Trizelia et al. (2011) and Inglis et al. (2012). The trap method by inserting 300 g into a plastic container and putting 10 larvae of T. molitor. Then incubated at room temperature (28ºC) for 10-14 days. Dead larvae that have symptoms of M. anisopliae disease were taken and sterilized the surfaces with 1% sodium hypochlorite and rinsed twice with sterile water and dried. Isolation of larvae by cutting larvae of larvae and taking part in the larvae body and inoculated onto sterile SDAY medium (Inglis et al., 2012) in petri dishes. M. anisopliae cultures waere taken with a 5 mm cork drill, then implanted on SDAY medium and incubated for 16 days at 28°C. 2.2. Experimental design The method used in this research is Completely Randomized Design (RAL) non factorial with 15 treatment of three replications. The treatment was conducted in locations as follow: M1 = village Kampung Baru, sub district of Bilah Barat in Labuhan Batu district