Vol. 11, Special Issue 9 (2022)

Author(s):
Kumari Pragya, SB Das and Sumit Kakade

Abstract:
Due to climatic changes, numerous incidences of expanding the reach of insects, invasion of new faunal species are being recorded. One such invasion took place in India during 2018, which created a havoc for the maize growers in the country. This new invasive species was identified as fall army worm scientifically known as Spodoptera frugiperda J.E. Smith (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), and can cause approximately 21-53% of yield loss as in maize crop. The infestation of this new insect in maize crop, drastically affected the maize production in India, which indirectly affected the maize based agro industries, thus hampering the economy to certain extent. Therefore, it becomes necessary to study the factors which can affect the FAW establishment and distribution. Therefore, present study is mainly focused upon the correlation studies of weather parameters with FAW larval population in maize crop during kharif and rabi seasons. Out of ten understudy independent factors (crop age and nine weather parameters), maximum and minimum temperature and evaporation had significant positive impact on FAW larval population, whereas morning and evening relative humidity, rainfall and rainy days exhibited significant negative correlation, during kharif season. While during rabi season, maximum and minimum temperature showed significant positive correlation with FAW larval population, whereas crop age, rainfall, rainy days and wind speed were found to be significantly negatively correlated.