Vol. 11, Special Issue 3 (2022)

Author(s):
Chavan SS, Narangalkar AL and Sapkal SD

Abstract:
An experiment entitled ‘Population dynamics of rugose spiralling whitefly, Aleurodicus rugioperculatus (Martin) on coconut’ were conducted on the coconut orchard at Nursery No. 4, Department of Horticulture, College of Horticulture, Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli during the period of one year starting from December 2018 to December 2019. The population of rugose spiralling whitefly (RSW) recorded throughout the year on coconut palm but the density of total population varied from 4.24 to 102.87 adults per frond per palm in different SMW. The observations on the pest population were started from 50^th SMW (10^th Dec. to 16^th Dec.) which recorded 34.31 RSW per frond per palm which reached its peak i.e., 102.87 RSW per frond per palm during 15^th SMW (9^th April. to 15^th April) and remained more or less stable till 21^st SMW (21^st May to 27^th May). Correlation of pest incidence and weather parameters revealed that the population of RSW had a positively highly significant correlation with maximum temperature, bright sunshine hours and evaporation and recorded as r = 0.574**, 0.473** and 0.708**, respectively. In the multiple regression study, R² value indicated that weather parameters contributed to 56.0 per cent of the total variation in the population of RSW on coconut.