Microbial control of the exotic spiralling whitefly, Aleurodicus dispersus (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) on eggplant using entomopathogenic fungi.

Biological control using entomopathogenic fungi is a promising alternative to chemical control. The entomopathogenic fungi, Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo) Vuillemin, Metarhizium anisopliae (Metschnikoff) Sorokin, Lecanicillium lecanii (Zimmerm.) Zare and Gams and Isaria fumosorosea (Wize) were tested for their efficacy in controlling the spiralling whitefly, Aleurodicus dispersus Russell (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) on eggplant, Solanum melongena L. (cv. Pusa Purple Round) for two seasons in a randomized completely block design. Two applications of fungi were made at the rate of 2 × 109 conidia/mL. Observations on A. dispersus population were recorded on three leaves from the top, middle and bottom of 5 tagged plants per plot. I. fumosorosea and L. lecanii exhibited promising levels of control (>75% mortality) as compared to the other entomopathogenic fungi. I. fumosorosea was highly pathogenic to A. dispersus in both applications and seasons than other species of entomopathogenic fungi. Mortality from both seasons indicated differences in efficacy between days 3-15 after treatment. Application 2 produced the highest mortality in both seasons. Seasons had no influence on reduction of A. dispersus population. There is potential for use of entomopathogenic fungi to manage A. dispersus on eggplant. Key words: Aleurodicus dispersus, Solanum melongena, biocontrol, entomopathogenic fungi, mortality.