ISOLATION OF POTENTIAL ENTOMOPATHOGENIC FUNGI FROM TEA SOIL OF DIBRUGARH AND TINSUKIA DISTRICT OF ASSAM

Abstract

Tea garden soil extensively supports monoculture plantation of tea plant and there is comparatively little informationabout the distribution of spores of entomopathogenic fungi within the studied site. The entomopathogenic fungi arepromising natural agents that can parasitize a wide range of insect species and most entomopathogenic fungi have severalvariants and each strain is adapted to various hosts, causing natural infections among insects of many different species.Hence, soil samples from selected tea gardens were qualitatively analysed to find the occurrences of entomogenous fungiin the tea plantation areas which can be used as a bio-control agent against tea pests.