## 3 Results  
A total of 15 isolates were molecularly identified (Table 1). Mycelial and conidial growth on dead insects suggested that almost all deaths were related to the tested fungal species examined (Figure 1C-E). Observations of dead insects showed that external mycelium appeared within the first 72 h after placing them on moist filter paper. This was also validated by PCR. DNA sequences in the present investigation were matched with existing sequence data in GenBank, working with the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (NCBI BLAST). The effectiveness of the entomopathogenic fungi was significant against \(O\). _linearis_ larvae and adults (Table 2). The three-way factor model of insect biological stage \(\times\) treatment \(\times\) time showed a significant effect in terms of the mortality of larvae and adults of the insect (Table 2). The main effects and interactions for all factors on larval mortality proved to be significant (fungal isolates: F\({}_{15,\,959}\) = 15.232, \(p\) < 0.001; exposure time: F\({}_{15,\,959}\) = 31.844, \(p\) < 0.001; fungi \(\times\) time: F\({}_{224,\,959}\) = 3.335, \(p\) < 0.001). This indicates that the several fungal isolates affected the survival time of the insect in diverse ways. Mortality of \(O\). _linearis_ larvae as recorded in our study is presented in Figure 2, indicating high efficacy (>80%) for most of the fungal isolates. Three isolates reached 100% mortality on the tested larvae: _Beauveria varroae_ [PERSON]. (23), _Cordyceps fumosorsea_ ([PERSON]) (Hypocreales: Cordycipitaceae) (Is), and _Purpurecillium lavendulum_ [PERSON], Gene, [PERSON] (Hypocreales: Ophiocordycipitaceae) (101). The other thirteen isolates recorded mortality between 66.2% (_B. bassiana_ BB AC) and 98.2% (_M. robertsii_ MET K). The control mortality of \(O\). _linearis_ larvae reached 3.3% at the end of the experiment. The main effects and interactions for all factors on adult mortality proved to be significant (fungal isolates: F\({}_{15,\,959}\) = 19.112, \(p\) < 0.001; exposure time: F\({}_{15,\,959}\) = 42.154, \(p\) < 0.001; fungi \(\times\) time: F\({}_{224,\,959}\) = 1.298, \(p\) < 0.001). This indicates that the several fungal isolates affected the survival time of \(O\). _linearis_ adults in diverse ways. Mortality of \(O\). _linearis_ adults as recorded in our study is presented in Figure 3, indicating high efficacy for many isolates. The three isolates that induced the highest mortality on the tested adults were _M. anisopliae_ (MET A) (96.6%), _C. fumosorsea_ (Is) (92%), and _M. anisopliae_ (MET S) (94.4%). The other 13 isolates recorded mortality between 66.6% (_M. anisopliae_ (MET B)) and 90% (_B. varroae_ (23))--_M. robertsii_ MET K). The control mortality of \(O\). _linearis_ adults did not exceed 1.2% until the end of the experiment. The lowest larval survival time was estimated at 6.42 days for _B. varroae_ (23), 7.64 days for _P. lavendulum_ (101), and 9.12 days for _M. anisopliae_ (MET B) [Wilcoxon (Gehan) statistic = 92.695, df = 16, \(p\) < 0.001]. The survival time of the control (untreated) larvae exceeded 15 days (Table 3). The other EPF isolates recorded moderate survival times (>10 days). On the other hand, the lowest adult survival time was estimated for _M. anisopliae_ (MET S) at 8.71 days [[PERSON] (Gehan) statistic = 61.895, df = 16, \(p\) < 0.001], with the rest of the \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c} \hline \hline
**Factor** & **df** & **F** & \(p\)**Values** \\ \hline Insect biological stage & 1 & 6.643 & 0.015 \\ Treatment & 15 & 85.373 & 0.000 \\ Time & 15 & 49.312 & 0.000 \\ Insect biological stage \(\times\) treatment & 15 & 59.306 & 0.000 \\ Insect biological stage \(\times\) Time & 15 & 9.717 & 0.004 \\ Treatment \(\times\) Time & 225 & 8.733 & 0.000 \\ Insect biological stage \(\times\) Treatment \(\times\) Time & 225 & 5.450 & 0.028 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: ANOVA parameters for mortality levels of \(O\). _linearis_ larvae and adults exposed for 16 days to different strains of EPF in 10\({}^{8}\) conidia per mL.