The pathogenicity of entomopathogenic fungi, Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium anisopliae and Verticillium lecanii, was evaluated against the adult of vine mealybug ,Planococcus ficus (Signoret) under laboratory conditions by dipping bioassays. The results showed that the virulence of B. bassiana was higher than the virulence of M.anisopliae and V. lecanii. In case of B. bassiana isolate, the LC50 value was 6 × 104 conidia /ml while LT50 recorded 5.30 days at 5 × 107 conidia /ml. Results showed that B. bassiana isolate caused the highest mortality in comparison to other tested entomopathogenic fungi isolates with 98% mortality using 5 × 107 conidia /ml. These results demonstrated that the effectiveness of the entomopathogen is promised for the biocontrol of vine mealybug.

Keywords: vine mealybug, Planococcus ficus, entomopathogen

Introduction
The vine mealybug, Planococcus ficus (Signoret) (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), is one of the most important vineyard pests in grape production in Argentina, South Africa, Pakistan and especially Mediterranean countries (De Lotto 1975, Cox 1981, Cox and Ben-Dov 1986, Duso 1990, Ben-Dov 1994 and Mansour et al. 2011). It is …show more content…
The media was autoclaved at 120°C for 20 minutes .Then, the media was poured in Petri dishes (9cm diameter×1.5cm) under sterilized conditions .Funguses were inoculated under these sterilized conditions and then incubated at 25- 30°C in the dark for 15 days. Conidiospores were harvested by rinsing agar with sterile distilled water containing 0.05% Triton x-100. Conidiospores were then washed twice in sterile distilled water by centrifugation at 5000 revolutions / minute for 5 minutes. A haemocytometer was used to determine the concentration of Conidiospores in the initial suspension. Serial dilutions were then made to obtain the desired concentration of