Occurrence of Fusarium subglutinans on Certain Sugarcane Pests

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Authors

  • Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore - 641 007 ,IN
  • Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore - 641 007 ,IN

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18311/jbc/1989/4193

Keywords:

Fusarium subglutinans Natural Infection, Chilo sacchariphagus indicus, Scirpophaga excerptalis, Pulvinaria elongata.

Abstract

Fusarium subglutinans is known to infect a number of insect pests. Recently. it was reported to be pathogenic to the sugarcane scale insect. Melanaspis glomerata (Green) (Raghavendran et al., 1987). During the course of our survey, other sugarcane pests like internode borer. Chilo sacchariphagus indicus (Kapur) top borer, Scirpophaga excerptalis Walker and scale insect Pulvinaria elongata Newstead were also found to be infected by the pathogen. In the field, 2-5 per cent of the popUlation was found infected and mummified by the pathogen. The infected insects were found completely covered with a white fungal mat and examination of smears revealed the presence of both macro-and micro conidia which is a characteristic feature of the genus Fusarium.