**3. Results**

108 Zoology

**Sugar molasses (SM) %** 

G + YE 2.66 1

G + CSL + YE 2.66 0.50 0.50 G + PE + YE 2.66 0.50 0.50 G + CSL + PE + YE 2.66 0.333 0.333 0.333

SM + YE 2.66 1

SM + CSL + YE 2.66 0.50 0.50 SM + PE + YE 2.66 0.50 0.50 SM + CSL + PE + YE 2.66 0.333 0.333 0.333 G+SM+CSL+PE+YE 1.33 1.33 0.333 0.333 0.333

Table 2. Composition of the media of shake flask cultures in agitated liquid cultures of

**2.3 Influence of liquid media composition on the growth of blastospores of** 

The media were poured into 250 ml Erlenmeyer flasks and autoclaved. After cooling, all the flasks were inoculated with one milliliter of spore suspension (1 × 106 spores/ml) in 0.03 % Tween 80 (Sigma-Aldrich, St Louis, MO, US) from 24-day-old cultures of *B. bassiana*, *M. anisopliae* and *I. fumosorosea* grown on PDA. Four replicates were used for each growth medium. After inoculation, cultures (100 ml) were grown in 250 ml shake flasks at 120 rpm on a rotary shaker, 25 ± 0.5 ºC and 16 h fluorescent light photophase. After 120 h of growth, fungal biomass of each flask was evaluated separately. The fungal biomass was filtered through Whatman No. 1 filter paper. After filtration, the filtrates were dried for 24 h at 70 ºC

The optical densities of the inocula of all the studied fungi grown on different media after different time intervals such as 20 h, 40 h and 60 h were measured at 600 nm (OD600) by using a spectrophotometer (Shimadzu UV-1800). The media without inoculation were used

The entomopathogenic fungi were grown on solid substrate (rice grains) as described in our previous study (Hussain et al., 2011). In brief, 50 % diluted 10 ml inoculum obtained from above media was added into a self-aerating bag containing 20 g of sterilized par boiled rice,

**Glucose (G) %** 

G + CSL 2.66 1

SM + CSL 2.66 1

G + PE 2.66 1

G + CSL + PE 2.66 0.50 0.50

SM + PE 2.66 1

SM + CSL + PE 2.66 0.50 0.50

**SUGAR AND NITROGEN SOURCES** 

**Peptone (PE) %** 

**Yeast extract (YE) %** 

**Corn steep liquor (CSL) %** 

**GROWTH MEDIA** 

entomopathogenic fungi

and weighed.

as control.

**entomopathogenic fungi** 

**2.4 Production on solid substrates** 
