Journal of Biological Control

307-320

Authors: Sanjay M. Bandi, G. Sivakumar, B. Kiran Gandhi

Baculoviruses, a diverse group of arthropod-specific viruses, have long been employed for the biological control of many economically significant insect pests on agricultural and forest crops all over the world. They are primarily pathogens of caterpillars and about 90 per cent are reported to cause diseases in members belonging to the order Lepidoptera. Baculoviruses have been attractive biological control agents because of their safety to vertebrates, other non-target fauna and high pathogenicity with host death being most likely outcome of an infection. They have an ability to persist outside the host insect by producing virions sequestered within the protein matrix and potential to trigger epizootics in insect population, thus being important factor in regulating the size of host insect population. Baculoviruses are relatively quick acting and lethal among the various insect pathogens infecting globally significant pest species. Considering the importance of baculoviruses in insect pest management, a review of the research work carried out is presented.

326-335

Authors: P. R. Nithya, S. Manimegalai, S. Nakkeeran, S. Mohankumar, S. Jayarajan Nelson

343-347

Authors: Beerendra Singh, V. Kumar, M. K. Mahla, A. K. Vyas, G. Chhangani

The relative efficacy of Trichogramma chilonis (Ishii) was evaluated for management of the brinjal shoot and fruit borer in the field condition at the Horticulture Farm of Rajasthan College of Agriculture, MPUAT, Udaipur from July 2016 to February 2017. The result showed that when three dosages of egg parasitoid, T. chilonis applied with 6 and 8 times releases @ 50000, 100,000 and 150,000 parasitized eggs at 10 days interval starting from 15 days after transplanting, releases of 150,000 for 6 and 8 times was found to be most effective with mean shoot damage of 11.96 and 12.66 per cent, respectively, while, the least effective rate was when parasitoid was released @ 50000/ha (T2 and T1) with mean shoot damage of 17.78 and 18.12 per cent, respectively, against fruit borer damage. Six and eight times release of T. chilonis @ 150,000 was most effective with mean fruit damage of 11.67 and 9.80 per cent on number basis, and 11.59 and 9.90 per cent per cent fruit damage on weight basis. The results revealed that the maximum parasitism was recorded for treatments of 8 and 6 times @ 150,000 /ha (47.61 per cent to 47.05 per cent).

353-359

Authors: Bhupesh Chandra Kabdwal, Roopali Sharma, Rashmi Tewari

A glasshouse and field experiments were conducted by using Trichoderma harzianum (Th 43), Pseudomonas spp. (Pf 173) and Jas Mycorrhizal (AMF) for plant growth promotion and management of root rot and wilt disease of tomato. There were eight treatment combinations for glass house as well as field experiment. In glasshouse, maximum germination (91%), shoot and root length (40.83 cm, 9.79 cm), fresh and dry shoot weight (152.00 g, 28.38 g), fresh and dry root weight (9.33 g, 3.90 g), plant vigour index (4301.45) respectively was recorded in treatment combination of Th 43 + Pf 173 + AMF. In experimental field, maximum reduction of disease over control (72.16%) was found in treatment combination of T. harzianum (Th 43) + Pseudomonas spp. (Pf 173) + Jas Mycorrhiza (AMF). The maximum yield of tomato (486.70 q/ha) was also recorded in same treatment combination.

365-371

Authors: Priyanka Thakur, R. S. Rana, Nalini Challa, K. C. Sharma

Mechanism of host plant resistance in tomato varieties was evaluated and compared against tomato fruit borer, Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) attack in the Solan district known to be 'Tomato bowl of Himachal Pradesh'. Eight varieties utilized for the experiment included three self pollinating indeterminate varieties developed by selection (Solan Lalima, Solan Vajar, Palam Pink) and four hybrids (Naveen 2000+, Heem Sohna, Red Gold, Rakshita Yash Tomato). In order to locate the sources for resistance in tomato foliage various macro and micro- nutrients were extracted from these varieties and chemical composition of tomato fruits viz., content of total phenols, titrable acidity, reducing sugars and total sugars were also estimated to compare for varying levels of resistance to Helicoverpa armigera. The content of phenol and sugars in tomato fruits was found to be negatively correlated with fruit infestation with values of correlation coefficient (r = - 0.895) and (r = - 0.650), respectively, indicating that susceptible varieties were low in phenols as well as in sugars. Nitrogen (r = 0.660), potassium (r = 0.679), magnesium (r = 0.698), iron (r = 0.547) and manganese (r = 0.546) content were found to be optimistically correlated with per cent fruit infestation while, phosphorous (r = - 0.857) and zinc (r = - 0.801) content did not favor the fruit borer attack. This observed resistance can be exploited for developing crop cultivars, which readily produce the inducible response upon mild infestation, and can act as important components of integrated pest management compatible with other approaches like biological control, cultural control as well as chemical control.

378-381

Authors: Hemant Swami, D. K. Jain, Lekha , M. K. Mahla

Field experiments were conducted to evaluate the efficacy of different biopesticides, viz., Nomuraea rileyi @ 1 × 10⁸ conidia/lit, Beauveria bassiana @ 1 × 10⁹ CFU/ml minimum @ 5 ml/lit, Metarhizium anisopliae @ 1 × 10⁹ CFU/ml minimum @ 5 ml/lit, dipel @ 1 kg/ha, spinosad 45 SC @ 0.5 ml/lit, neem seed kernel extract (NSKE) @ 5% and neem oil @ 2% against foliage feeders of soybean namely, semi looper (Chrysodeixis acuta) and tobacco caterpillar (Spodoptera litura) during Kharif, 2016. The result revealed that all treatments were significantly superior over control. The mean larval population of C. acuta and S. litura ranged from 1.29 to 9.37 and 0.92 to 6.98 larvae per meter row length (mrl) at 3, 7 and 10 days respectively after the application of treatments. The treatments comprising Spinosad 45 SC @ 0.5 ml/lit proved highly effective in reducing the population of C. acuta and S. litura with lowest overall mean larval population of 4.71 and 3.02 larvae per mrl, respectively. Against C. acuta NSKE @ 5% was least effective and against S. litura neem oil was observed as least effective with maximum over all mean larval populations of 7.75 and 4.97, respectively.

385-388

Authors: R. Varatharajan, W. Sangeeta, H. Sarjubala, P. H. Sujata, R. R. Rachana

Pieris brassicae granulosis virus (PibrGV) has been found to infect yet another two siblings namely P. canidia Linn. & Pontia daplidice (= Pieris daplidice) (Roeber) in addition to P. brassicae (Linn.). The susceptibility of P. canidia and P. daplidice has been established clearly in this work by inoculating them with PibrGV @ 5 × 10⁴ occlusion bodies (OBs) per ml by the conventional leaf disc method. All the inoculated larvae e × hibited typical symptoms of viral infection after 5-7 days of post infection. The above three species of the genus Pieris occur on cabbage and cauliflower plants at different periods in the valley region of Imphal and therefore, it is possible to control all the three species of Pieris using the same virus. LC₅₀ value of PibrGV on P. brassicae, P. canidia and P. daplidice was found to be 7.9 × 10⁴; 10 × 10⁶; and 6.3 × 10⁶ OBs/ml and the LT₅₀ was 134.89; 138.03; 174.50 hours, respectively.