FUSARIUM OXYSPORUM F.SP. PISI AGAINST THE LARVAE OF MAJOR MOSQUITO VECTORS: A LABORATORY INVESTIGATION

Namita Soni* and Soam Prakash

Efficacy of the metabolites of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. pisi has been investigated against the mosquito larvae of Culex quinquefasciatus, Anopheles stephensi and Aedes aegypti in laboratory. F. oxysporum f.sp. pisi was grown on Potato dextrose broth in the laboratory at 25°C, 75±5% humidity for 15 days. Filtration process was done using whatman-1 filter paper, column chromatography and flash chromatography. Larvicidal efficacy was performed against all larval instars of Cx. quinquefasciatus, An. stephensi and Ae. aegypti at six different concentrations with different effective ratios (ethanol/metabolites: 9:1, 8:2, 7:3, 6:4, 5:5, 4:6, 3:7, 2:8, and 1:9) by the probit analysis for a period of 24, 48, and 72 h, respectively. Among all ratios, one potential ratio was selected for efficacy study. The 5:5 ratio was found highly effective against the larvae of Cx. quinquefasciatus, 7:3 ratios was effective against the An. stephensi and 1:9 ratio was found effective against the larvae of Ae. aegypti. The first, second and third instar larvae of Cx. quinquefasciatus have shown 100% mortality, while fourth instar larvae have LC₅₀ 20 ppm, LC₉₀ 89.12 ppm and LC₉₉ 144.54 ppm values for the metabolites. The metabolites of F. oxysporum f.sp. pisi has not been tested against the mosquito larvae previously. The metabolites of F. oxysporum f.sp. pisi could be a fungal larvicides resource for the control of mosquitoes and could be another agent for biotechnological exploitation, if found suitable in field trials.