ABSTRACT
The coconut cockroach (Coraliomela brunnea) is a serious pest of coconut trees, and may cause severe damage when efficient control techniques are not used. The present study was aimed to evaluate two entomopathogenic fungi species for the control of C. brunnea. The larvae where collected at a coconut plantation and carried to the laboratory. Spore suspensions of Beauveria bassiana at different concentrations where sprayed over the 2-cm-long larvae, in acrylic boxes and kept at 26º C, 12 h photoperiod. B. bassiana did not show any negative effect against C. brunnea larvae. All spore concentrations of M. anisopliae tested where pathogenic and caused significant insect mortality (P < 0.001), the concentrations that caused mortality above 50%, after 19 days of treatment, were: 1 x 108, 5 x 107, and 1 x 107 conidia/mL, which caused 85%, 63.8% and 51.3% of larval mortality, respectively.
KEY WORDS
Coconut;
Coraliomela brunnea
; fungi; microbial control
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