Fig. 5

Cumulative survival of Tenebrio molitor (a, c) and corresponding hazard (b, d) 12 days after exposure to control suspensions (a, b) and bead formulations (c, d). Polyvinyl alcohol 4-88/polyethylene glycol/lecithin coating suspension with and without blastospores (BS PVA, Control PVA), blastospores detached from coated starch beads (BS detached), plain starch beads as negative control (S), starch beads coated with PVA only (S Coat) and starch beads coated with blastospores (S BS), uncoated AK beads (AK), AK beads coated with blastospores (AK BS), blastospores in 0.9% NaCl as positive control (BS NaCl) and no treatment at all as negative control (Non). Individuals were right-censored if they were still alive at the end of the experiment. Censoring is indicated by tick marks on the Kaplan–Meyer curve. T. molitor larva immediately fed on starch beads (e), and presumably molted after sporulated attract-and-kill bead attached to its skin. The bead was still attached to the molt (f). The sporulation of Metarhizium brunneum CB15-III on infected T. molitor larva cultivated on semi-selective PDA after 14 days (g) was microscopically analyzed and showed morphological characteristics of M. brunneum (h)