Photorhabdus is a genus of Gram-negative bacteria from the family Enterobacteriaceae. Members of Photorhabdus have a complex life cycle during which the bacterium has a pathogenic interaction with insect larvae whilst also maintaining a mutualistic relationship with nematodes from the family Heterorhabditidae. During growth in the insect, Photorhabdus bacteria produce a broad-spectrum antibioti...

Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) in the families Heterorhabditidae and Steinernematidae have a mutualistic-symbiotic association with enteric γ-Proteobacteria (Steinernema-Xenorhabdus and Heterorhabditis-Photorhabdus), which confer high virulence against insects. EPNs have been studied intensively because of their role as a natural mortality factor for soil-dwelling arthropods and their potent...

In the present study, the entomopathogenic nematodes were recorded from 89 samples (5.37%) out of 1656 samples collected from 20 sites representing ecologically diverse types of habi ta ts in Meghalaya, India . Out of 89 positive samples, the frequency of occurrence of Steinernema spp. was found to be more (73.03%) than Heterorhabditis sp. (26.97%). All the EPN positive samples were from the fo...

The entomogenous nematode species Heterorhabditis heliothidis (Kahn, Brooks, and Hirschmann), H. bacteriophora Poinar, Neoaplectana carpocapsae Weiser, and N. glaseri Steiner are promising biological control agents for a broad range of soil-inhabiting insect species (6). Many factors in soil affect nematode survival, movement, and infectivity: Moisture is probably the most important physical fa...

Entomopathogenic nematodes are soil-dwelling biocontrol agents. EPNs need an insect host to complete their life cycle, and they kill during its development. The major disadvantage of is the high cost commercial products. Thus, there many studies focused on reducing production costs by optimization mass production. In a previous project, Heterorhabditis bacteriophora Poinar, 1976 (Rhabditida: He...