ates Against Fruit Fly Pupa
A laboratory bioassay of collected
EPFs was conducted in order to screen out
the effective strains against the fruit fly,
Bactrocera spp. The in vitro screening was
carried out according to a method outlined
by [26] with some modification. Two-three
day-old pupae were sterilized with 0.5%
(v/v) sodium hypochlorite and dipped in
four serial dilutions (1×105
conidia ml-1 to
1×108
conidia ml-1) of conidial suspension
for 2 min. For each dilution, 10 pupa ml-1
were used. The treated pupae were
transferred to 15ml sterilized glass vials
containing wetted cotton wool and incubated
in a BOD chamber (25 ± 2°C and 70 ± 2%
RH). Control pupae were treated with sterile
distilled water containing 0.1% Tween-80.
Treated pupae were examined for their
emergence and mycosis daily after inoculation.
Mycosis was confirmed by microscopic
examination. Dead pupae with fungal
growth were transferred to PDA plates
for confirmation of infecting species. Each
experiment conducted in triplicate was
replicated three times.