Various agricultural products and by products such as grains, vegetable wastes, seeds, rice husk, saw dust and liquid media such as coconut water, rice and wheat washed water and rice cooked water were evaluated for mass production of three entomopathogenic fungi; Beauveria bassiana, (Bals.) Vuil.Paecilomyces fumosoroseus (Wize) Brown and Smith and Verticillium lecanii. (Zimm) Viegas. Among the grains, wheat supported maximum spore production for B. bassiana while sorghum recorded maximum spore production in P. fumosoroseus and V. lecanii. Similarly carrot, jack seeds and ladies finger also supported good growth and sporulation of all the three tested fungi. Coconut water supported maximum growth and sporulation. Key words: Entomopathogenic fungi, mass production, agricultural products

A laboratory experiment was conducted to evaluate the impact of silver aqueous solution, gold aqueous solution, pungamoil, pungamoil-based silver nanoparticles (PO-AgNPs) and pungamoil-based gold nanoparticles (PO-AuNPs), vijayneem against Pericallia ricini larval mortality, development and fecundity and gravimetric analyses. The results showed that Ag+ aqueous solution as well as pungamoil-based gold nanoparticles caused more mortality than commercial neem insecticide (vijayneem). Aqueous solutions of Ag+ and Au+ drastically reduced the body weight of P. ricini larvae. PO-AgNPs and POAuNPs treatment drastically enhanced the food consumption, assimilation but reduced the conversion, subsequently affecting growth. Distinct difference was noticed between PO-AgNPs and PO-AuNPs treatments in larval, pupal and adult developmental periods, fecundity and hatchability. It is recommended to integrate PO-AgNPs and PO-AuNPs in pest management; however, field evaluations and bio-safety assessments were imperative before the utilization of these bio-nanoparticles were recommended.

The marine algae, popularly known as seaweeds are one of the most important marine resources of the world. The biocidal activity of hexane (HE), chloroform (CH), methanol (ME) and water (WA) extracts (100, 200, 400, 600 and 800 ppm) of brown algae (Ochrophyta), Sargassum wightii (Greville ex J. Agardh) (SW) and Padina pavonica (Linn.) Thivy (PP) was assessed against Dysdercus cingulatus (Fab.). GC-MS results revealed that S. wightii showed the presence of stigmastan-6, 22-dien, 3, 5-dedihydro- (71.34%) whereas P. pavonica showed hexadecanoic acid, methyl ester (43.26%). The chloroform extract of S. wightii caused more nymphal mortality at 96 hrs (LC50= 631.8 ppm) than P. pavonica (LC50= 1062.5 ppm). Further, column chromatographic fractions of S. wightii (F164 - F323) (LC50= 175.2 ppm) and P. pavonica (F800 - F965) (LC50= 292.7 ppm) showed more nymphal mortality. After 96 hrs, live insects were maintained with normal food and life parameters like adult longevity, mating period, fecundity, hatchability and incubation period were recorded. In S. wightii chloroform extract, male longevity and water extracts male longevity (df= 5, 27; F= 8.177; p= 0.005); female longevity (df=5, 24; F= 6.838; p=0.005). Mating period was highly prolonged by the water extracts. Fecundity and hatchability were highly reduced at 800 ppm both by chloroform and methanol extracts. In P. pavonica, mating period was highly prolonged by the water extract; fecundity and hatchability were highly reduced by hexane and the incubation period was slightly increased by extracts. Hence, these algal extracts can be used as biocide in cotton pest management.