Development of a novel isolation unit for entomophthoralean fungi

•A sealed and high temperature-tolerant isolation unit was designed.•Isolation efficiency of the isolation unit was evaluated.•Conidia collection efficiency of the isolation unit was investigated.•The isolation unit is efficient, convenient and is operational in the field. Entomophthoralean fungi are important natural enemies of pests and highly co-evolved with their hosts. However, successful isolation of entomophthoralean fungi can be difficult due to their fastidious culture requirements; this is an important obstacle to research on Entomophthorales. In this study, we designed an isolation unit and evaluated it against the conventional ‘descending conidia’ isolation method. There was no difference in contamination rate between the methods (78% and 76% clean isolations) despite the isolation unit not requiring laminar-flow facilities. Furthermore, more conidia were collected in the new isolation unit than using a standard method. The isolation unit is efficient, convenient and is operational in the field.