Effect of abiotic factors on incidence of major sucking pests on brinjal

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to observe the effect of abiotic factors on seasonal incidence of major sucking insect-pests on brinjal during kharif-2018 at Experimental farm, Department of Agricultural Entomology, Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani (M.S.). The incidence of sucking insect-pest viz., aphid, leaf hopper and whitefly was observed from 29th – 50th (July to December) standard meteorological week (SMW) whereas, mites 37th -50th SMW. The incidence of aphid reached to its peak (15.1 aphid/3 leaves) during 42th SMW (second fortnight of October) and whitefly (23.4 whitefly/3 leaves) during 43th SMW. While, the maximum population of leaf hopper observed during 37th SMW (11.8 leaf hopper/3 leaves) i.e. second week of September. Whereas, highest number of mites recorded during 47th SMW (14.1 mites/4 cm2 leaves). The correlation studies between incidence of aphid and weather parameters showed significant positive correlation (r= 0.503) with Morning relative humidity. The incidence of leaf hopper showed significant positive correlation with Bright sunshine (hrs) (r= 0.508) while, whitefly showed significant positive correlation with Morning relative humidity(r= 0.687) and Bright sunshine (hrs) (r= 0.663).