Isolation and Cultivation of Penicillium citrinum for Biological Control of Spodoptera litura and Plutella xylostella

Biological control agents are a promising substitute for chemical pesticides in agricultural pest management. In this study, Penicillium sp. with high pathogenicity to the pests oriental leafworm moth (Spodoptera litura) and diamondback (Plutella xylostella) were isolated from naturally infected insects grown on different residues as an inexpensive substrate their sporulation. Ten strains of (P.01~P.10) identified P. citrinum based morphological features molecular studies, sequence analysis using internal transcribed spacer region. Different fungal isolates exhibited varying degree against S. litura Pl. xylostella, P.04 P.09 showed highest litura, mortality rate 92.13% after 7 days treatments, while strain P.06 resulted xylostella (100%) 6 treatment. Moreover, among ten both potential virulence lethal time 50% (LT50) values 4.5 3.0 days, respectively. The higher than litura. agro-industrial-based medium efficiency cultivation sporulation industrial scale, suggesting that newly is biological agent controlling insect could be further developed microbial pesticide production.