Identification and Virulence Characterization of Two Isolates Against (Thysanoptera: Thripidae).

(Bagnall) is one of the most harmful pests of leguminous plants. In order to expand our knowledge on the infection of by entomopathogenic fungi, two newly identified isolates of (Zare & Gams) were tested for their pathogenicity against . Both isolates of (SCAUDCL-38 and SCAUDCL-56) were isolated from soil and were identified by morphological and molecular analyses. The adult females of were treated with five different concentrations (1 × 10, 1 × 10, 1 × 10, 1 × 10, and 1 × 10 conidia/mL) of the isolates. Our results revealed 76.25% and 57.5% mortality of after five days of treatment with 1 × 10 conidia/mL of SCAUDCL-38 and SCAUDCL-56, respectively. The median lethal concentrations (LC) of SCAUDCL-38 and SCAUDCL-56 calculated through linear regression analysis after five days of fungal treatment of were 1.9 × 10 and 1.5 × 10 conidia/mL, respectively, whereas the median lethal time (LT) observed for 1 × 10 conidia/mL of SCAUDCL-38 and SCAUDCL-56 were 3.52 days and 4.9 days, respectively. isolates SCAUDCL-38 and SCAUDCL-56 are highly pathogenic strains of . These findings offer valuable information on the development and commercialization of alternative control measures against .