Seventeen isolates of Metarhizium anisopliae (Metschnikoff) Sorokin and three isolates of Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo) Vuillemin (Hypocreales: Clavicipitaceae) were evaluated for their pathogenicity to the adult pea leafminer, Liriomyza huidobrensis (Blanchard) (Diptera: Agromyzidae), in the laboratory. Flies were contaminated with dry conidia through a velvet material wrapped around the inner side of a cylindrical plastic tube. All the isolates were pathogenic to the pea leafminer, causing mortality between 40 and 100% at 5 d after exposure. The lethal time for 50% mortality (LT₅₀₎ ranged from 2.6 to 5.4 d, whereas the LT₉₀ values varied between 3.2 and 9.1 d depending on the isolate. An autoinoculation device was evaluated in cage field experiments using only one of the virulent isolates, M. anisopliae ICIPE 20. The device was loaded with 2–3 g of dry conidia. Mortality of up to 100% was observed in flies captured from fungus-treated cages held under laboratory conditions. The average number of spores picked up by a single fly visiting the device increased with days after inoculation. One day after the inoculation, adults picked up an average of 4.1 ± 0.7 × 10⁵ conidia and 39.6 ± 4.0 × 10⁵ conidia 5 d after inoculation. Depending on the sampling date, the LT₅₀ varied between 1.8 and 3.4 d. Results indicate that some isolates of B. bassiana and M. anisopliae are highly pathogenic to L. huidobrensis, suggesting a potential for their use in the control of this pest. They also suggest the possibility of L. huidobrensis suppression with fungi using an autoinoculation device.