• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.139-143
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• 2009

Several entomopathogenic fungi have been exploited to be developed into biological control agents in insect pest management. The beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua, is a serious insect pest infesting various crops, but not effectively controlled by commercial chemical pesticides due to its high insecticide resistance. A fungal isolate was isolated from S. exigua larvae collected from cabbage field in Andong, Korea. The fungus could be cultured in potato dextrose agar. Larvae of S. exigua injected with the cultured conidia showed a potent entomopathogenicity. To identify the fungus isolate, its internal transcribed space (ITS) and surrounding partial 18S/28S regions were sequenced. The ITS sequence was highly matched (99%) to that of Nomuraea rileyi. Morphological characters of its hyphae and conidia were well fit to those of known N. rileyi. This study reports the first record of an entomopathogenic fungus, N. rileyi, in Korea.