The occurrence of Mahanarva fimbriolata (Stal) in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, is observed in September and its control has been carried out through the use of Metarhizium anisopliae (Metsch.) Sorok. With the aim of evaluating the efficiency of the fungi isolates the present work was conducted on natural populations of M. fimbriolata in a mechanically harvested commercial sugarcane crop. The isolates IBCB 348, IBCB 408, IBCB 410 and IBCB 425 were used at a concentration of 1.5 × 10(12) conidia/ha (2 kg/ha of fungus grown on rice). A completely randomized block design was laid out with five treatments and four replicates, with each replicate consisting of 7 lines of 100 m length, and with 1.5 m spacing. At 30 days after spraying, the isolates IBCB 408 and IBCB 425 showed a control effectiveness for nymphs of 63 and 62%, respectively, and for adults it was 100%. At 60 days after application, the isolated IBCB 425 was the most efficient for controlling the nymphs (48.4%). In general, there was no statistical difference between the strains with respect to the capacity for controlling M. fimbriolata populations. It was observed that only a single application of M. anisopliae is not effective for maintaining the population of M. fimbriolata below the economic injury level.
Entomopathogenic fungi; biological control; Saccharum spp