A highly mosquitocidal Bacillus thuringiensis var. thompsoni

A strain of Bacillus thuringiensis isolated from a soil sample in Pondicher ry was examined for its flagellar antigenicity, mosquito larvicidal activit y and protein composition. This strain was found to agglutinate with the an tisera belonging to B. t. thompsoni and exhibit high toxicity towards the l arvae of the species of Culex quinquefasciatus, C. tritaeniorhynchus, C. si tiens. Anopheles stephensi and Aedes aegypti, respectively. The 28 kDa prot ein which has been reported to be predominantly present in the mosqui tocid al strains of B. thuringiensis was found to be present in a higher amount i n this strain. Also, the mosquito larvicidal activity and electrophoretic p rofile were comparable to that of a strain of B. t. var. israelensis which is known to be highly toxic to mosquitoes.