A REPORT ON ISOLATION OF MYCOTOXIGENIC FUNGUS FROM THE LARVAL BODY SURFACE OF PADDY PEST, YELLOW STEM BORER, SCIRPOPHAGA INCERTULAS (WALKER) (PYRALIDAE : LEPIDOPTERA)Eureka Mondal, Kaushik Chakraborty and Gautam ChakrabortyAbstract Yellow stem borer, Scirpophaga incertulas Walker (Lepidopter: Pyralidae) is considered as major paddy pest of global importance. For investigating the role of S.incertulas as mechanical vector of fungal pathogen, an experiment has been carried out. The experiment in field condition was carried out at Central Research Farm, Gayeshpur, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Nadia, WB during two consecutive kharif seasons of 2018-2019. The infestation by S.incertulas was identified in terms of the incidence of Dead Heart (DH) produced during vegetative stage of paddy crop. A few of them were collected and brought to the Laboratory of Dept. of Zoology, Rabindra Mahavidyalaya, Hooghly, WB. Then the DH stem portion were splitted meridionally, larvae of different age groups were collected from the portion and stored them within a test tube. Few drops of the suspension made from the washing of the body surface of the larvae were inoculated randomly in petri-plates containing PDA media that was incubated at 26 ± 2 °C for 6-7 days. One fungal isolate was obtained in pure culture. Morpho-taxonomy reveals the isolate was Aspergillus flavus. It is thus evicted that apart from paddy crop damage, S. incertulas also acts as a harbourer of potent mycotoxins producing fungal pathogen Aspergillus flavus. |