摘要：The increasing mealybug infestation is one of the emerging threats to crop plants in Pakistan.The white waxy secretions on their body serve as a protective layer,which makes pesticide applications unfruitful.Moreover,frequent,non-passionate and non-judicious use of pesticides to control these hard pests has not only created resistance in this pest,but also polluted our eco-system.Therefore,an attempt has been made to control okra mealybug through fungal biocontrol agents.Different fungal biocontrol agents viz.,Verticillium lecanii,Paecilomy-ces lilacinus,Metarhizium anisopliae,Isaria fari-nosa and Beauveria bassiana were evaluated against the different developmental stage of P.so-lenopsis under in vitro condition.These ento-mopathogenic fungi greatly reduced the survival of different life stages of P.solenopsis as compared to control.However,their effectiveness was varied with the species used.On 1st instar P.lilacinus caused significantly maximum mortality followed by B.bassiana,M.anisopliae and V.lecanii.B.bassiana caused 100% mortality on 2nd instar,whereas,P.lilacinus,V.lecanii,and M.anisopliae caused 90% reduction in mealybugs.In 3rd instar M anisopliae caused the significantly highest mortality of 100% followed by B.bassiana (88%) and P.lilacinus (86%).Among different entomopathogen-ic fungi,B.bassiana and M.anisopliae were highly effective on adult female mealybug and caused 100% mortality.Present investigation revealed the variable LDso values of entomopathogenic fungi against P.solenopsis.They are 1.372x107 conid-ia/ml,7.063x106 conidia/ml,4.173x107 conidia/ml,1.69x106 conidia/ml and 6.615x106 conidia/ml for B.bassiana,M.anisopliae,I.farinosa,V.lecanii and P.lilacinus,respectively.
