Vol. 12, Special Issue 7 (2023)

Author(s):
Renu Adhikari and RM Srivastava

Abstract:
The present experiment entitled seasonal incidence of major insect pests and their associated natural enemies in brinjal crop at Pantnagar, Uttarakhand was conducted during the kharif season of 2019–20, at Vegetable Research Centre, GBPUA&T, Pantnagar. Population dynamics of major damaging insects, viz., leafhopper, whitefly, brinjal leaf roller, hadda beetle, BSFB, and their major associated natural enemies viz., coccinella and spider were studied in correlation to different abiotic factors. Observations were taken from crop transplanting until maturity at weekly intervals and correlated to different abiotic factors. Results revealed leafhoppers showed the lowest and highest population (0.2/3 leaves and 3.88/3 leaves) during the 48^rd and 40^th SMW, and a significant positive correlation with evaporation and rainfall were recorded, respectively while whitefly showed lowest and highest population (0.1/3 leaves and 5.23/3 leaves) during the 48^th and 43^rd SMW, and a significant negative correlation with rainfall were recorded. Leafroller and hadda beetle showed peak numbers during the 37^th and 41^st SMW (2.79 per plant and 3.66 per plant), a non-significant correlation to all variables was observed for leafroller, while hadda beetle showed a positive and significant correlation with sunshine hours. The most damaging pest, BSFB, showed 5.52 larvae per plant during the 46^th SMW as the peak infestation level and correlation showed significant negative relations with RH eve., evaporation, rainfall, and only wind velocity showed significant positive correlation with BSBF population. Although the natural enemies coccinella and spider showed peak numbers of 2.66 per plant and 1.36 per plant, during 38^th and 37^th SMW respectively, and negative significant correlations were found between evaporation and coccinella, the spider population showed a negative significant correlation with rainfall and evaporation, while sunshine hours showed a positive significant correlation.