Larvicidal effect of extracellular secondary metabolites of different fungi against the mosquito, Culex quinquefasciatus Say.

The culture filtrates of five different soil fungi viz., Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus parasiticus, Penicillium falicum, Fusarium vasinfectum and Trichoderma viride were tested for the larvicidal activity against third instar larvae of mosquito vector Culex quinquefasciatus. The concentrations of fungal culture filtrates used in the study ranged from 25 to 100 mg/L. The results showed that the larval mortality could be observed on 24 hours of exposure period. The LC5 0 values of A. flavus, A. parasiticus, P. falicum, F. vasinfectum and T. viride were 38.34, 40.39, 44.97, 50.03 and 54.16 mg/L, respectively. Among the five different fungi, the culture filtrates of A. flavus was found to be more toxic than the other four species of fungi against Cx. quinquefasciatus.