Utility of cheap carbon & nitrogen sources for the production of a mosquito-pathogenic fungus, Lagenidium.

ABSTRACT

Attempts were made to produce Lagenidium in culture media containing corn starch, barley flour, wheat flour, jaggery, rice bran, rice flour or tapioca starch as the major carbon source and groundnut cake as nitrogen source in comparison with peptone-yeast extract-glucose-sunflower oil (PYGSF) agar medium. The number of zoospores produced by the mycelia grown in PYGSF agar medium was 20 x 10(4)/10 cm2 while that grown in the other media was 20-25 x 10(4)/10 cm2. With respect to the larvicidal activity, the mycelia grown for 7 days in the medium containing jaggery, tapioca starch, rice flour or rice bran caused 88-96 per cent mortality while that from other media, including PYGSF agar medium, caused 70-75 per cent mortality. Twelve batches of the fungus were produced using rice-groundnut cake-sunflower oil (RGNCSF) agar medium with consistent zoospore yield and larvicidal activity.