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Abstract

The terrestrial activities of entomopathogenic nematodes like movement, infection, development, and survival are influenced by a number of abiotic factors and among these soil moisture and temperature are regarded as the most important. Therefore, in the present studies the emergence of Steinernema feltiae from infected Galleria mellonella cadavers were evaluated in moist and dry conditions at different temperatures and the effects of cool storage on the recovery and duration of recovery of infective juveniles (IJ) from cadavers were also investigated. The results showed highly significant results regarding emergence of S. feltiae from infected G. mellonella under moist and dry regimes. A total of 154,456 IJ recovered per Galleria on moist sand as compared to 11,551 when placed on dry sand. Similarly, greater numbers of IJ recovered from the 10°C treatment than 5 °C. The total IJ recovered from cadavers at 5 °C were 292,314 and at 10°C were 381,135. The relationship between both the temperatures under wet and dry conditions was highly significant (P<0.001). The number of IJ emerging from wet at 5 °C was 50,029 and from wet at 10 °C were 81,674. Under dry conditions, 40,892 IJ recovered from 5 °C and 41,260 from 10 °C. There was no significant overall effect of insect host on the numbers of active nematodes recovered from the cadavers. More IJ recovered from G. mellonella cadavers than T. molitor stored at 5 °Cbut this trend was reversed at 20 °C.