EVALUATION OF LARVICIDAL EFFECT OF MYCOGENIC SILVER NANOPARTICLES AGAINST WHITE GRUBS (HOLOTRICHIA SP)

Abstract

In the present study pesticidal efficacy of mycogenic silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) was tested against white grubs (Holotrichia sp), a potent pest of sugarcane in western Uttar Pradesh (India). The AgNPs were synthesized by using Aspergillus niger biomass and characterized by color based method, UV (ultra voilet) - Visible Spectroscopy, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX), Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICPMS). The development of paint-like mustard colored solution by color-based identification method confirmed the synthesis of AgNPs. The UV-Vis spectroscopy showed peak at 425nm, corresponding to AgNPs. The FESEM results also confirmed the synthesis of nano sized particles. EDX analysis result showed the optical absorption peak at 3 keV which is specific to AgNPs. The DLS result confirmed the synthesis of AgNPs with average size of 76.6 nm. FTIR analysis depicted information about all the interaction of AgNPs with other chemicals present in environment. The AgNPs were applied against first instar white grub larvae in vitro and lethal dosage (LD50) was formulated by Probit analysis, which was further validated and found to be significant at 0.05 levels by chi-square test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) including least significant difference (LSD).