author(s)
Devindrappa, Sanjay M Bandi, Bansa Singh and Krishna Kumar

abstract
Entomopathogenic Nematodes (EPNs) belonging to genera Heterorhabditis and Steinernema have been known for their bio-control potential against soil inhabiting insects or their life stages present in soil. In the present study, we identified five isolates of EPN’s from different crop rhizospheres of Uttar Pradesh through Galleria mellonella (L.). Insect Baiting Technique and White’s Trap Method. Morphological and morphometric studies of Infective Juveniles (IJs) and first generation male and females revealed the isolate belonged to the genus Steinernema of the family Steinernematidae. The species level identity of isolates was confirmed by sequencing of ITS-rDNA region. Our isolate showed maximum homology with ITS sequences of Steinernema siamkayai available in the NCBI GeneBank. Based on the morphological and morphometric, and molecular analysis, the nematode isolates were identified as S. siamkayai. The parasitic potential of S. siamkayai was tested against the soil dwelling stage, pupae of Helicoverpa armigera (Hub.) and results demonstrated that S. siamkayai was found to reduce / inhibit 60 to 90 per cent of adult emergence from pupae present in soil at varied numbers of IJ concentration. This study reports identification and entomopathogenicity of S. siamkayai against soil dwelling pupal stage of H. armigera.