Agricultural Soil Micro-Fungal Isolates of Metarhizium anisopliae on Food Consumption, Productivity and Enzyme Activity of Spodoptera litura Fabricus

The Entomopathogenic micro-fungal species Metarhizium anisopliae was collected from the agricultural soils of Kanchipuram district of Tamil Nadu, India. Micro-fungal spores of Metarhizium anisopliae were tested for its effect on the feeding of Spodoptera litura at three different concentrations of 103, 105 and 107. The Higher concentration of spore significantly reduce the consumption of leaf. The exposure of fungal spore's concentration decrease the production efficiency. The microfungal infection reduction of Spodoptera litura gut enzymes such as amylase and trehalase and reduced weight gain of infected insects and 33.32% mortality recorded in microfungal infected S.litura .