Mass production of insect pathogenic hypocreale fungi, Metarhizium anisopliae on solid substrates and liquid media

Mass production of Metarhizium anisopliae on different locally available solid substrates viz., pearl millet, maize, sweet corn, cowpea, rice bran, wheat bran, press mud + yeast extract (1%) and bagasse + yeast extract (1%) and Pulses viz., green gram, red gram, chick pea and cowpea and liquid media viz., sabouraud’s dextrose broth, potato dextrose broth, sabouraud’s maltose broth, sabouraud’s sucrose broth and sabouraud’s glucose broth was taken up. Significantly highest number of CFU were recorded in green gram, 94.00, 91.00 and 97.00 CFU per ml with 13.24 × 108 , 16.42 × 108 and 15.56 × 108 conidia per ml in 3 promising strains, UASRBC-Ma2, UASRBC-Ma31 and ICARNBAIRMa4, respectively followed by wheat bran, 78.00, 73.00 and 93.33 CFU per ml with 22.00 × 108 , 26.23 × 108 and 24 × 108 conidia per ml and maximum dry mycelia recorded in Sabouraud’s maltose yeast broth, 127.33 mg, 219.67 mg, 325.67 mg and 386.00 mg per 100 ml of liquid broth on 4th, 6th, 8th and 10th days after inoculation. The present study revealed that solid substrates namely green gram, rice and wheat bran and liquid media, sabouraud’s maltose broth provide a simplest productive medium for mass production of Metarhizium anisopliae spores.