| The control of the major sugarcane pest, Diatraea saccharalis, is limited by the stem location of the caterpillar. As part of a long-term project towards the development of an alternative and efficient delivery system of Cry proteins to control the sugarcane borer, the current work describes the selection and characterization of a Brazilian B. thuringiensis strain with prominent activity towards D. saccharalis. Strain S76 was eleven-fold more active than the HD-1 Lepidoptera-standard strain, as estimated by the LC50 of 13.06 µg/L and 143.88 µg/L, respectively. We observed bipiramidal and cuboidal crystals similar to those found in other B. thuringiensis strains with entomopathogenic activity against Lepidoptera and Diptera. In addition, smaller and... |
