Authors: H S Salama M S Foda M A ElBendary A AbdelRazek
Publish Date: 2004/01/15
Volume: 77, Issue: 1, Pages: 27-31
Abstract
A search for means of biologically controlling the red palm weevil RPW Rhynchophorus ferrugineus resulted in the isolation of several microbial cultures belonging to bacteria actinomycetes and fungi Among the obtained cultures three potent sporeforming bacilli were further isolated from natural habitats associated with insectdamaged date palms in Egypt The isolated bacterial cultures strains 73 15 and 27 were identified as variants of Bacillus sphaericus B megaterium and B laterosporus respectively Under standard bioassay conditions the mortalities of the secondinstar larvae of the target insect induced by the three isolated bacilli variants ranged between 40 and 60 The most active culture strain no 73 was identified as B sphaericus This isolate formed spherical endospores and crystalline endotoxin comparable to those of B sphaericus standard strain 2362 which is pathogenic to mosquito larvae as shown by electron microscopy However the amino acid composition of the sporeendotoxin complexes was markedly different
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