Abstract
Agricultural products remain under threat from biotic and abiotic factors from production to storage. For example, stored grains, pulses, legumes, and dates are exposed to the attack by several insect pests during storage. The almond moth, Cadra cautella (Walker) is an important cosmopolitan insect that can cause damage to dates under storage conditions which causes significant losses to the famers. We tested the pathogenicity of indigenous entomopathogenic fungus isolates against the immature stages of C. cautella. The Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo) Vuillemin, BbSA-1 isolate (originally from a coleopteran cadaver), BbSA-2 isolate (from a lepidopteran cadaver), and natural B. bassiana (the NBVR isolate; commercial) were screened against different developmental stages. The developmental stages were directly exposed to each fungus isolate at a concentration of 1 x 10(7) conidia/mL. It was observed that all fungus isolates affected the hatchability of eggs, caused significant larval and pupal mortality. The NBVR isolate was the most pathogenic to C. cautella eggs, whereas BbSA-2 demonstrated the highest pathogenicity against C. cautella larvae and pupae. The following order of susceptibility was observed: pupae > larvae > eggs. Data from this study indicated the importance of this fungus to be used as environmentally friendly of management tool to control C. cautella in dates store houses.