Morphological Variability of Conidia of Leveillula taurica (Lev.) Arn Causing Chilli Powdery Mildew

Powdery mildew of chilli caused by Leveillula taurica is one of the most serious diseases of chilli. The leaves showing typical symptom of chilli powdery mildew were collected. Twenty four isolates were collected from different chilli growing areas of northern Karnataka during survey during kharif 2017, which showed morphological variation in terms of conidia colour which varied from hyaline to greyish, shape of conidia varied from cylindrical to pyriform, size of conidia ranged between 36.23-58.60 × 10.57-16.32µm and 41.16-60.99 × 12.67–14.58 µm respectively for cylindrical and pyriform conidia. Whereas, length of conidiophore ranged between 53 to 96.11 µm and conidiophore showed branching pattern.