Journal of Biological Control

194-197

Authors: J. Poorani, H. Sankararaman, V. Sathyaseelan

Bulaea lividula bocandei Mulsant (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), hitherto known from North Africa, the Middle East, and Pakistan, is recorded for the first time from India (Tamil Nadu). Suaeda maritima (L.) Dumort. (Chenopodiaceae), a common halophytic plant in mangroves, is recorded as a new host plant of B. lividula bocandei. A brief diagnostic account of the species with illustrations is given along with details on its host plants and distribution.

201-204

Authors: Chitra Shanker, P. Sapna, K. Shabbir, V. Sunil, B. Jhansi Rani, Gururaj Katti

The pentatomid bug, Andrallus spinidens (F.), is a polyphagous predator on lepidopteran larvae in rice fields in India. The basic biology and predatory potential of the bug was studied under laboratory conditions. The nymphs were reared in petri dishes and were fed 3^rd to 5^th instar Spodoptera mauritia (Boisduval) larvae. The mean development period from egg to adult was 21 days. Eggs were laid in batches of 45 to 95 and the mean total number of eggs laid by each female was 259. The second, third and fourth stage nymphs fed on 7.99, 8.32, 26.33 number of third instar larvae instar larvae of S. mauritia, respectively. The predator exhibited a type II functional response to S. mauritia larvae with a disc equation of Y’ = 0.41(5-0.74) x to the increasing density of S. mauritia. This study provides important life history information for using the predator A. spinidens as a possible biological control agent for army worm management in rice.

212-216

Authors: C.V. Vidya, Haseena Bhaskar

An extensive survey was undertaken to explore the diversity of fauna of Scymnini associated with sucking pests viz., mealybugs, aphids and whiteflies on fruits, vegetables, plantation crops, ornamentals and other associated plants across Kerala during 2015-17. Scymnini along with associated prey were collected, and in the laboratory, beetles were dissected to study the male genitalia for identification, while prey were identified by the expert in the concerned taxa at NBAIR. The study recorded 14 species of Scymnini in five genera associated with 19 species of prey (12 mealybugs, 5 aphids and 2 whiteflies). The five genera include Axinoscymnus, Cryptolaemus, Horniolus, Nephus and Scymnus. Scymnus, the predominant genus was represented by three subgenera viz., S. (Scymnus), S. (Pullus) and S. (Neopullus). S.(Pullus) coccivora Ayyar recorded the maximum prey range of six species of mealy bugs. Nephus regularis (Sicard) was recorded for the first time in Kerala. The study identified Toxoptera odinae (van der Goot) as a new prey record for S. (P.) pyrocheilus Mulsant.

223-228

Authors: M. R. Soumya, K. J. Kavitha, K. Shabith Raj, D. A. Evans

Experienced farmers traditionally applied bovine urine in compost pits and cow dung pits for preventing the larval development of Oryctes rhinoceros, (Linn.), a serious pest of coconut palms. This traditional knowledge was validated in the laboratory by mixing 100 ml of bovine urine with 500 gm cow dung and it was found that presence of urea at a concentration of 1.0 to1.5 % in the bovine urine was the reason behind the insecticidal activity. Aqueous solution of urea at a concentration of 0.3 to 0.4 % in cow dung has resulted 100% mortality of Oryctes rhinoceros larvae in 3-5 days. Toxicity has resulted in hyperproteinemia, elevated total free amino acid and uric acid of hemolymph. Activity of hemolymph aspartate amino transferase, alanine amino transferase and two proteolytic enzymes such as leucine amino peptidase, cathepsin D were decreased, indicating that urea had affected protein turn over and aminoacid metabolism. The carbohydrate metabolism was also affected through elevated activity of trehalase and subsequent decrease in trehalose content. The polysaccaride glycogen showed sharp decrease but the larvae were unable to utilize glucose which resulted hyperglycaemia. SDS-PAGE of hemolymph of urea intoxicated larvae showed sharp changes in the protein profile which was attested through GEL-DOC analysis. Intoxicated larvae showed decrease in total hemocyte count together with selective increase in the population of granulocyte. Urea was the major dissolved constituent of bovine urine and the presence of it was the reason behind its pest control value.

240-245

Authors: K. Soumya, P. N. Ganga Visalakshy, C. Swathi, A. Krishnamoorthy, K. Gopalakrishna Pillai

Field trials were conducted to evaluate the efficiency of different IPM treatments (Trichogramma chilonis, Dolichogenidea stantoni, Nomuraea rileyi, Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium anisopliae and Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies kurstaki) for the management melon borer, Diaphania indica in bittergourd. Among the different treatments evaluated, T7 (Bacillus thuringiensis/ Dipel) and T3 (T. chilonis + D. stantoni) were more effective; T2 (D. stantoni), T4 (N. rileyi) and T5 (B. bassiana) also gave good control over the D. indica population when compared to other treatments and control.

249-253

Authors: Nikita S. Awasthi, S. Sridharan, S. Mohan Kumar

Banana pseudostem borer Odoiporus longicollis Olivier is one of the serious monophagous pest threatening the production and productivity of banana in south India. The native isolate of entomopathogenic fungi Metarhizium anisopliae (Metchinkoff) Sorokin was identified and evaluated for its virulence to O. longicollis compared with other entomopathogenic fungal isolates. The native isolate M. anisopliae (Ma-BW) showed higher virulence to adults with the minimum LC₅₀ value ∼1.0 × 10⁷ spores ml^-1 and faster lethal effect on adult O. longicollis with the shortest LT₅₀ value of 62.54 hours. Among different oil in water formulations of Ma-BW evaluated against adult O. longicollis in laboratory at 2% showed that the formulation of Ma-BW in ground nut oil performed superior with adult mortality of 83.33 per cent at 120 HAT followed by oil formulations of Ma-BW in sunflower oil, gingelly oil and neem oil with76.67 per cent adult mortality at the same concentration and time period.

259-260

Authors: S. Thangavel, N. Ganapathy

The parasitization potential of three parasitoids viz., a parasitoid, Aenasius arizonensis, and two predators, Cheilomenes sexmaculata and Cryptolaemus montrouzieri. was studied on Phenococcus solenopsis under laboratory conditions. Among them A. arizonensis alone recorded parasitization to an extent of 40.91%.

123-127

Authors: KATAYOUN PAHLAVAN YALI, SHAHROKH PASHAI RAD, MEHDI ZARE KHORMIZI, ZAHRA MOJIB HAGH GHADAM, MINOO HEIDARI LATIBARI and GUY HANLY

Ladybirds beetles belonging to the family Coccinellidae, Order Coleoptera, play an important role in pest control. The aim of this research was to explore, identify and characterize the coccinellid fauna of the Mazandaran Province (Iran). Coccinellid beetles were collected during 2013- 2015 from different Agriculture Stations with a wide range of agricultural lands and plants. A total of 21 species in 15 genera and 4 subfamilies were identified. 1. Coccinella septempunctata (Linnaeus, 1758) 2. Adalia bipunctata (Linnaeus, 1758)* 3. Harmonia quadripunctata (Pontoppidan, 1763) * 4. Haippodemia variegate (Goeze, 1777) 5. Oenopia congolobata (Linnaeus, 1758) 6. Propyleaquatuor decempunctata (Linnaeus, 1758) 7. Adalia decempunctata (Linnaeus, 1758) 8. Vibidia duodecimguttata (Poda, 1761) * 9. Psylloboraviginti duopunctata (Linnaeus, 1758) 10. Chilocorus bipustulatus (Linnaeus, 1758) 11. Exochomus nigromaculatus (Goeze, 1777) 12. Platynaspis luteorubra (Redtenbacher, 1843)* 13. Nephusbi punctatus (Kugelann, 1794)* 14. Nephus qadrimaculatus (Herbst, 1783) 15. Scymnus subvillosus (Goeze, 1777) 16. Scymnus frontalis (Fabricius, 1787)* 17. Scymnus apetzy (Mulsant, 1846) 18. Scymnus impexus (Mulsant, 1850)* 19. Stethorus punctilum (Weise, 1891)* 20. Stethorus gilvifrons (Mulsant 1850)* 21. Serangium montazeri (Montazeri, 1994)* Nine species that are marked by *are new records for MazandaranCoccinellid fauna.

135-145

Authors: V. VELAVAN, G. SIVAKUMAR R. RANGESHWARAN, R. SUNDARARAJ and T. O. SASIDHARAN

Studies were conducted to systematically isolate Metarhizium isolates from the insect cadavers and soils of South India. Morphological and PCR amplified sequences of 5.8S ITS regions and RNA polymerase beta sub-unit1 (RPB1) gene regions were used to identify the isolates at species level. Eight Metarhizium isolates were isolated and initially identified by morphological and microscopic studies. Further identification was confirmed through 5.8SrRNA ITS and RPB1 analysis. They were identified as three isolates of M. robertsii (ArMz3R, ArMz3S and ArMz6W), one isolate of M. majus (VjMz1W) and four isolates of M. anisopliae (WnMz1S, NlMz2S, BgMz2S and DhMz4R). Topical conidial suspensions (TCS) and powder based formulations (PBF) of the eight indigenous isolates of Metarhizium spp. that were isolated from insect cadavers and soils of South India were tested against coleopteran pests Holotricha serrata L. and Oryctes rhinoceros L. that cause serious damage to sugarcane and palm trees respectively. Against H. serrata TCS of M. robertsii (ArMz6W) was the most effective with an LC₅₀ of 6.893×10⁵ cfu/ml and caused 100% mortality against the 3rd instar larvae in 5 days; PBF elicited an LC₅₀ of 7.502×10⁵ cfu/ml with 96% mortality in 10 days. Against O. rhinoceros TCS (LC₅₀ of 9.75×10⁵ cfu/ml) of M. majus (VjMz1W) caused 90% mortality in 7 days and the PBF (LC₅₀ of 9.57×10⁵ cfu/ml) caused 86% mortality in 14 days. The results establish that M. robertsii is highly effective against H. serrata and against O. rhinoceros M. majus was the most effective. The TCS formulations of these two strains can be readily deployed for field applications.

159-167

Authors: T. VENKATESAN, S. HELEN MAHIBA, S. K. JALALI, S. L. RAMYA and M. PRATIBHA

The toxic effect of commonly used insecticides in cotton fields was studied on 9 populations of Chrysoperla zastrowi sillemi (Esben-Petersen), an important predator of sucking pests collected in India. The dose mortality bioassay against 3-days old larvae was determined using three insecticides viz., endosulfan, fenvalerate and acephate by topical bioassay method. Mechanism of resistance to the above mentioned insecticides were determined without and with three metabolic inhibitors (synergists), viz., piperonyl butoxide (PBO), S,S,S-tributyl-phosphorotrithioate (DEF) and diethyl maleate (DEM). Among the populations, resistant ratios (RR) of CZS-8 was significantly higher i.e. 50.36., 66.11 and 277.51-fold for endosulfan, fenvalerate and acephate, respectively compared to susceptible population (CZS-10). The CZS-8 was selected for synergism study it showed higher LC₅₀ values and resistance ratio for all three insecticides. It showed 8.97-fold, 18.49-fold and 6.38-fold increase in synergism ratio for endosulfan indicating the resistance was strongly synergised by PBO, DEF and DEM. Similarly for fenvalerate, CZS-8 showed 8.69-fold and 3.63-fold significant increase in synergism ratio by DEF and DEM, respectively and for acephate, CZS-8 showed 54.82-fold, 150.87-fold and 113.52-fold significant increase in synergism ratio indicating that the resistance could be due to cytochrome p-450, esterase and glutathione s- transferase activity. The study indicated that the field population of C. z. sillemi developed resistance to different groups of insecticides. Among different geographical populations, CZS-8 collected from Sriganganagar, was recorded as most resistant.

172-180

Authors: D. E. KAVI NEWTON and D. JOHN CHRISTOPHER

Sheath blight and sheath rot are the major diseases of rice in Tamil Nadu particularly in Cauvery delta region. Pot culture and field trials were conducted to evaluate the efficacy of consortia application of ecofriendly components viz., Fortified Lignite Fly Ash (LFA), Annamalai Mixture and antagonistic microorganisms against the sheath blight and sheath rot diseases and yield parameters during the kuruvai and samba season of 2016. Among the different combination of ecofriendly components, combined application of Pseudomonas fluorescens and Bacillus subtilis as seed treatment@ 10g/kg of seed, soil @ 10 kg/ha at transplanting, foliar spray @ 10 kg/ha at tillering and boot leaf stage plus spraying Annamalai Mixture @ 20 lit /ha at tillering stage and boot leaf stage plus Fortified lignite fly ash as soil @ 40 kg/ha at transplanting and foliar dust @ 30 kg/ha at boot leaf stage significantly reduced sheath blight and sheath rot disease incidence in pot culture and field condition. The same treatment recorded the maximum grain yield. All the ecofriendly components treated plants significantly decreased the diseases incidence and increased the grain yield as compared to control.

69-73

Authors: RICHA VARSHNEY and CHANDISH R. BALLAL

Recently, in India severe incidence by the invasive insect pest, the South American tomato pinworm, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) was reported for the first time infesting tomato crop in Pune, Maharashtra. Later infestation was reported in the other states of India. In T. absoluta infested tomato field, zoophytophagous mirid, Nesidiocoris tenuis (Reuter) was observed to be associated with tomato pinworm. A net house experiment was conducted to evaluate N. tenuis on T. absoluta infested tomato plants. The aim was to ascertain, if releases of N. tenuis could reduce T. absoluta infestation or due to its phytophagous nature it could lead to damage of tomato plants. The treatments comprised of a) release of N. tenuis on T. absoluta infested plants, b) releases of N. tenuis on uninfested plants and c) T. absoluta infested plants were maintained as control. Results indicated that in treatment with N. tenuis, number of T. absoluta eggs and the % mined area were lesser by 83.25% and 89%, respectively. Overall number of necrotic rings per plant during all 10 weeks caused by N. tenuis was significantly lesser in T. absoluta infested plants treated with N. tenuis (0.74±0.18) compared to treatment with N. tenuis alone (2.16±0.35). Flower abortion was also not observed at this density (total release of 6 adults/plant). When mean number of T. absoluta eggs were high in 3rd week (9.54 eggs/plant) number of necrotic rings were negligible though average number of N. tenuis was 4.1/plant during the same week. During 5th week when number of N. tenuis was on peak (11.2/plant), the average numbers of T. absoluta eggs and necrotic rings were 3.61eggs/plant and 0.46/ plant, respectively. It shows that number of necrotic rings per plant increased with decreasing T. absoluta population. Further studies are needed to investigate the precise role of N. tenuis as a natural mortality factor of T. absoluta in field situations and its damage potential after a long interaction with plant in pest scarcity and when it occurs at high density.

79-81

Authors: SANDESH M. GAWAS and ANKITA GUPTA

The species Polistes (Polistella) dawnae Dover & Rao (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Polistinae) is recorded for the first time from Arunachal Pradesh, India. This discovery extends the distribution of the species to India, previously known from Dawna Hills (Myanmar), Northeastern Laos and Northern Vietnam.

The study was carried out during 2010-11 at farmer fields and laboratory, College of Agriculture, Osmanabad District (Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Agricultural University (VNMKV), Parbhani), Maharashtra, India on the incidence of parasitoids of Melanagromyza obtusa (Malloch) infesting pigeonpea. Four hymenopteran parasitoids recorded were; the Eulophid parasitoid, the torymid Torymoides sp. (Walker), two ormyrids viz., Ormyrus orientalis (Walker) and Ormyrus sp. (Westwood). As per the literature available and reviewed, Torymoides sp. is the first ever record for new host association reported from M. obtusa maggotsas an ecto-parasitoid. The natural larval parasitism of M. obtusa by Torymoides sp. ranged from 3.13 to 31.82 per cent. The parasitism was observed from 51st SMW (3.13 per cent) which increased gradually and attained a peak on 6th SMW with 31.82 per cent with a mean parasitism of 9.30 per cent over a period of 13 standard meteorological weeks. The new record of natural parasitism of pod fly by Torymoides sp. would add to the existing knowledge on the biological suppression of the pest.

25-27

Authors: A. A. MOTAPHALE, B. B. BHOSLE and F. S. KHAN

Field experiments were conducted during kharif 2010-2011 and 2011-12, in the field of Department of Agricultural Entomology, College of Agriculture, Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani (Maharashtra). During this experiment, significantly highest population (1.70 LB/5 plants) of lady bird beetle, (1.00 chrysopa /5 plants) of chrysopa and (1.60 spiders /5 plants) of spider were observed in untreated control and were at par with MAU IPM module. Significantly lowest population was observed in chemical control treatments.

38-49

Authors: MONIKA TRIPATHI and GOVIND GUJAR

Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner, a gram positive aerobic bacterium, produces parasporal crystal (Cry) toxins that are highly specific and effective against insect species. During the course of isolation of native strains, B. thuringiensis AUG-5 was found the most effective with a wide range of activity against lepidopterans. Hence, different media were evaluated for its growth and development. Increase in concentration of the Luria Bertani [(LB), composed of casein, yeast extract and sodium chloride in 2:1:2 w/w)] medium in the fermentation broth from 1 to 2% increased colony forming unit (CFU), spore and also Cry1Ac and Cry2Ab toxin content. However, further increase of LB concentration to 3% adversely affected bacterial growth and development. Addition of 1% Wesson salt in 1% LB broth significantly increased spore, CFU counts, and also that of Cry1Ac but not of Cry2Ab. Spore and CFU counts in media were positively correlated and cell mass negatively correlated with Cry1Ac and Cry2Ab contents. Of all media substituting LB with agro products, medium consisting of 2% wheat flour, 2% soybean meal and 1% Wesson salt could be considered as an alternative to LB medium to achieve economy of largescale production costs. Spore-crystal complexes of Medium II and III were most toxic to the neonates of cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera and tobacco caterpillar, Spodoptera litura at 10 μg/g, and differed significantly from those of Medium LB-2X and LB-3X and Cry2Ab2. Cry1Ac was most toxic to H. armigera at 1 μg/g and less toxic to S. litura than Cry2Ab.

56-59

Authors: O. SHAILA, H. C. SHARMA, T. RAMESH BABU and S. P. SHARMA

Studies were conducted to evaluate transgenic chickpea lines encoding Cry IIa for resistance to Helicoverpa armigera. Significantly lower leaf damage was noticed in transgenic chickpea lines when compared to non-transgenic lines. Significant reduction in larval survival and weight gain were observed when H. armigera were fed on transgenic lines under laboratory conditions. Across the seasons (2011-12 and 2012-13), the transgenic chickpea lines BS5A.2(T2) 19-1P2 and BS5A.2(T2) 19-2P1 showed enhanced levels of resistance to H. armigera.