Diversity and nature of damage of mango thrips, hopper complex Krishngiri district of Tamil Nadu

Introduction

Mangifera indica L. (Mango), "the king of fruits", is an evergreen tropical fruit tree comprising about 69 species belonging to the family Anacardiaceae and originated in the Indo-Burma region and has become naturalized and adapted throughout the tropics and subtropics. One of the major fruit crops of India, is known as the king of fruits for its sweetness, excellent flavuor, delicious taste and high nutritive value and being rich in vitamins A and C (Anitha and Sharmila, 2023) [1] . Its origin is believed to be south Asia where it has been cultivated for the last four thousand years (Anitha and Sharmila, 2023) [1] . Major mango producing countries are India, China, Thailand, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brazil, Nigeria and Egypt. India ranks first and accounts for about 50% of the world's mango production with 2.5 million hectares producing annually 18.0 million tons (Sandeep et al., 2025) [2] . In India total area under mango cultivation is 20.21 lakh hectares, production 99.65 lakh tonnes, average productivity 6.28 tonnes/ha and percentage share on production is(40.10%) (Sandeep et al., 2025) [2] .

In Tamil Nadu account for over 70% of the total area under Mango (52%), In Tamil Nadu area under mango is 3.22 lakh hectares, production 99.65 and average productivity 30.97 tonnes/ha (Sandeep et al., 2025) [2] . The major mango growing states in Indian are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Other States where mangoes are grown include Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Haryana, Punjab etc. The Productivity of mango found to be declining over the years. The National average productivity is found to be as low as 10 tonnes per ha (Sandeep et al., 2025) [2] . In Tamil Nadu, Krishnagiri district 40,000 hectares come under the mango cultivation. 50% of the mango has been cultivated under rainfed condition. Apart from regluar bearing the farmers of this region are practicing off season mango cultivation. Among the different constraints in mango cultivation the incidence of insect pests is one of the major concern for the farmers (Devaramanae et al., 2023) [3] . The average yield is ten tonns per ha one of the most important problem is shedding of flowers dues to hoppers and thrips infestation and yield loss up to thrips 61% and hoppers 100% (Chaudhari et al., 2017) [4] . The mango crop is attacked by about 492 species of insects, 17 species of mites and 26 species of nematodes in the world level. Mango is usually infested by several pests during its growth from feed on inflorescences, buds and foliage seedling until fruit maturity (Chaudhari et al., 2017) [4] . Of 260 species of pest insects attacking this crop, 196 species insects pests recorded in India (Gundappa et al., 2015) [5] . During the reproductive phase of the crop, pests like hoppers and thrips pose a threat to mango production (Gundappa et al., 2016) [6] . Key challenges for mango production in India are insect pests and diseases. The major insect pests of mango include hoppers, thripsmealy bugs, midge, leaf webber, scale insects, stem borer and fruit fly (Reddy et al., 2018) [7] . Mango hoppers and thrips have been ranked among the most destructive pests worldwide. Mango hoppers are a significant and serious and ubiquitous insect problem in the Indian Mango ecosystem throughout the year (Devaramanae et al., 2023) [3] . Mango hoppers species, especially Idioscopus clypealis (Lethierry), Idioscopus nitidulus (Walker) and Amritodus atkinsoni (Lethierry), remain active and cause damage at all stages of mango mango and harvesting results in losses of up to 100 per cent (Gundappa et al., 2016) [6] . Mango hoppers have incomplete metamorphosis and pass three life stages such as egg, nymph and adult. Both the nymphs and adults of the hoppers puncture and suck the sap from tender shoots, inflorescences, and leaves of mango crop, which cause non-setting of flowers and dropping of immature fruits, thereby reducing the yield (Munj et al., 2020) [8] . Hoppers also excrete a secretion, called honey dew. In moist weather, it encourages the development of fungi like Meliola mangiferae (Earle), resulting in growth of sooty mould fungus on dorsal surface of leaves, branches and fruits. This black coating interferes with the normal photosynthetic activity of the plant, ultimately resulting in non-setting of flowers and dropping of immature fruits (Aashish et al., 2019) [8] . The Mango hoppers crop losses by sucking the sap on the petals, anthers, pollen, and floral nectaries and ovipositing in the panicles, which leads to discoloration and reduced vigor of the panicles (Pawar et al., 2025) [10] . The occurrence and seasonal prevalence data generated from the present study can be used to manage the population of hoppers and thrips on mango and this study have far-reaching implications in pest management strategy and the data so generated would help in the forecast of hoppers and thrips.

Materials and Methods

Roving surveys were carried out in different mango growing villages Krishnagiri District of Tamil Nadu for assessing the diversity and nature of damage of mango thrips and hoppers complex and natural enemies were recorded in four directions viz., north, south, east and west direction on randomly selected twigs or panicle lower canopy of the tree by visual count method without disturbing the relevant plant part. In vegetative stage, three sweeps were done on the selected tree trunk with polythene cover to collect surviving hopper population on trunk. Thrips populations were recorded by tapping the inflorescence on a simple white paper. The incidence of thrips, hoppers complex and natural enemies in mango was made by observing the five randomly selected mango trees and survey was made in two blocks viz., Kaveripattanam and Bargur of Krishnagiri District. Two years during 20222-2023 and 2023-2024.The natural enemies viz., Cocciennlids, spiders were counted at four side of trees. Roving survey was conducted at fortnight interval on hoppers populations in mango.

Experimental Results and discussion

Roving survey of thrips, hoppers complex and natural enemies in mango

The roving survey was conducted during August 2022 to March 2023 in Krishnagiri District. Highest thrips population 30.20 thrips/panicle was recorded in Jagathop village, Kaveripattanam block. The lowest thrips population 3.80 thrips/panicle was recorded in thtralli village, Kaveripattanam block. The same results were reported by Bana et al., (2018) [11] who state that Peak hoppers of thrips in second fortnight of March. The hoppers ranged from 4.80 to 7.40 hoppers/panicle (Table 1). Highest hoppers population 7.40 hoppers/panicle were recorded in Thtaralli village, Kaveripattanam block and Natural enemies like coccinellid (2.00 Nos to 5.00 Nos/tree) and spiders (1. 00Nos/tree to .00 Nos/tree). The same results were reported by Babu et al. (2002) [12] mango hoppers population high in flowering period of march month. Roving survey during August 2023 to March 2024 in Krishnagiri District. The hoppers population ranged from (2.50 to 8.50/panicle). Highest thrips population 11.50 thrips/panicle was recorded in-Bannihalli village, Kaveripattanam block. The lowest thrips population 5.50 thrips/panicle was recorded in Jagathop village, Kaveripattanam block The findings of present investigations are more or less in close agreement of findings of Bana et al., (2018) [11] The highest hoppers population 8.50 hoppers/shoot were recorded in Vallipatti village, Mathur block. Results of our current investigation are in line with Kadavkar et al., (2021) [13] in which they revealed that incidence of the mango hopper was noticed and the peak incidence of mango hopper was found to be in during the February (12.31 hoppers/panicle) was noticed and also same results reported by Bana et al., (2018) [11] who state that Peak hoppers of mango tree in second fortnight of March. The lowest hoppers population 2.50 hoppers/shoot was recorded in Signinampatti village, bargur block. The hopper population declined from second week of March which disappeared during second week of May (Chaudhari et al., 2017) [14] . Natural enemies like coccinellids population ranged from (1.05 No to 3.75 Nos/4 sides the tree). The findings of present investigations are more or less in close agreement of findings of Zala and Bharpoda (2022) [15] who reported that coccinellids and spiders population more active during flowering stage. Highest population of coccinellids 3.75/4 sides the tree were recorded in Signinampatti village, bargur block. The lowest coccinellids (1.05 Nos) was recorded in Paiyur village, Kaveripattanam block in Krishnagiri District. The natural enemies like Spiders population ranged from (0.64 Nos to 2.00 Nos/4 sides the tree). The highest population of 2.00 spiders/4 sides the tree were recorded in Vallipatti village, Mathur block of Krishnagiri District (Table 2) the similar study, incidence of natural enemies spiders and coccinllids peak activity January month during the flowering period (Patel et al., 2018) [15] .

Conclusion

Present study suggests that at the flowering stage of mango crops, thrips and hoppers can cause heavy damage and resulting in considerable yield loss. The occurrence and seasonal prevalence data generated from the present study can be used to manage the population of hoppers and thrips on mango and this study have far-reaching implications in pest management strategy and the data so generated would help in the forecast of hoppers and thrips.

References

1. Anitha R, Sharmila S. Nutritional and medicinal values of Mangifera indica L. fruit. Trends Hortic. 2023;6(2):1-12. doi:10.24294/th.v6i2.2949.
2. Sandeep G, Kushwaha RR, Supriya, Kumar M, Mahima P, Neerugatti. A study on growth and decomposition analysis of area, production and yield of mango in Uttar Pradesh, India. Environ Ecol. 2025;43(1A):296-302. doi:10.60151/envec/FRLF9317.
3. Devaramane R, Niranjan S, Ramesh KP, Subash C. ICT-based surveillance of hoppers and thrips in mango orchards of Maharashtra, India. Pest Manag Hortic Ecosyst. 2023;29(2):196-201.
4. Chaudhari AU, Sridharan S, Soorianathasundaram K, Singh SD. Dynamics of mango hopper population under ultra-high density planting. Int J Curr Microbiol Appl Sci. 2017;6(11):2206-2211.
5. Gundappa R, Rajkumar B, Srivastava K, Singh S. Rearing of mango stem borer, Batocera rufomaculata De Geer (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae). Pest Manag Hortic Ecosyst. 2015;21:219-220.
6. Gundappa AT, Shukla PK. Appraisal of thrips population dynamics in mango using weather-based indices. Vegetos. 2016;29:1-3.
7. Reddy PVR, Gundappa B, Chakravarthy AK. Pests of mango. In: Omkar, editor. Pests and their management. Singapore: Springer Nature Pvt Ltd; 2018. p. 415-440.
8. Munj AY, Reddy PV, Gundappa B, Bana JK, Irulandi S. Management of mango hopper using entomopathogens. J Entomol Zool Stud. 2020;8(5):1598-1600.
9. Aashish KA, Alok A, Guru PPG. Evaluation of insecticides against mango hoppers Amritodus atkinsoni International Journal of Advanced Biochemistry Research https://www.biochemjournal.com and Idioscopus clypealis. Indian J Entomol. 2019;81(2):340-350. doi:10.5958/09748172.2019.00052.X.
10. Pawar ST, Sajad M, Namala V, Pushpavalli, Mudasir G. Biological suppression of major insect pests in mango ecosystems. Int J Adv Biochem Res. 2025;9(12):1040-1046. doi:10.33545/26174693.2025.v9.i12m.6709.
11. Bana JK, Kumar S, Sharma H. Diversity and nature of damage of mango insect-pests in south Gujarat ecosystem. J Entomol Zool Stud. 2018;6(2):274-278.
12. Babu LB, Maheshwari TM, Rao NV. Seasonal incidence and biology of the mango hoppers. Entomon. 2002;27:35-42.
13. Kadavkar SS, Patil SA, Hole UB, Mohite PB, Thamidela MD. Seasonal incidence of mango hopper Amritodus atkinsoni Leth. Pharma Innov J. 2021;10(3):596-598.
14. Patel KB, Patel KM, Shinde CU, Desai KD. Nonchemical management of mango hopper Amritodus atkinsoni. Int J Entomol Res. 2025;10(3):164-167.