Abstract
Phthorimaea operculella (PTM) is an economically significant invasive potato insect pest in tropical and sub-tropical regions. Due to many problems concerning chemical insecticides, biocontrol agents such as entomopathogenic fungi have attracted researchers’ interest regarding their application as a part of integrated potato tuber moth management strategies in several countries. Hence, in the present study, we examined the lethal effects of entomopathogenic fungus, Metarhizium anisopliae (used as pure culture (PEF) or formulated with MCM-41 silica nanomaterial (MCM-41@fungus)) on eggs and neonate larvae of PTM. The MCM-41was completely characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) techniques. The morphology of MCM-41@fungus was evaluated by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The morphology of the mesoporous structure was exhibited to be homogeneous, regular, and spherical. LC50 values of PEF and MCM-41@fungus were estimated to be 1.7×107 and 2×105 conidia/ml for eggs and 1.8×106 and 1.5×104 conidia/ml for neonate larvae, respectively. Hence, bioassays demonstrated that MCM-41@fungus was more toxic than the pure culture at egg and neonate larval stages of the pest. The results exhibited that pure M. anisopliae and its nano-formulation could play key roles as biopesticides in management programmes of P. operculella.