Informatics Publishing Limited

S.P. Sharma , Ram Kishore , Rakesh Gupta , S. N. Sinhadeo , B. R. R. P. Sinha

Abstract

Myllocerus viridanus Fab. (commonly known as Ash weevil) is a serious pest affecting wide range of plant species including Terminalia arjuna Bedd. and T. tomentosa W&A , which are primary food plants of tasar silkworm , Antheraea mylitta D. (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae). Azadirachtin was evaluated for its insecticidal and growth inhibitory effects against final ins tar grubs of M. viridanus. Grubs feeding on ischolar_mains of T. arjuna embedded in Azadirachtin treated soil resulted in mortality and manifestation of various degree of growth disruption in pupal and adult stages in a dose - dependant manner.

Full Text

     

S. P. Sharma , Ram Kishore , K. Thangavelu , S. Rai

Abstract

The May-June beetle, Anomala blanchardi Blanch is one of the major pests of primary tasar food plants, Terminalia arjuna Bedd. and T. tomentosa W & A causing 10-15% loss to the foliage with an average incidence of 15-20 adults per bush. An experiment was undertaken to evaluate the effect of Amrutguard a Neem (Azadirachta indica A. juss) formulation on mortality and feeding inhibition efficacy against adults of A. blanchardi. Observations reveal that maximum mortality (77.77%) was recorded when adults of A. blanchardi were fed with 30 ppm Azadirachtin treated leaves as compared to control (6.66%). Results indicate that in the said concentration the excretion oflitter was minimum (0.39 g/treatment) vis-a-vis control (1.527 gl treatment). This reflects the minimum feeding due to strong antifeedant properties of Azadirachtin. The paper deals with the use of non-wood products of neem in the pest management thereby minimizing crop loss and load of insecticides in the forest ecosystem.

Full Text

     

S. P. Sharma , Ram Kishore , B. R. R. P. Sinha , K. Thangavelu

Abstract

Defoliators Anomala blanchardi Blanch, Tricliona picea Jacoby, T. variabilis Jac., Myllocerus viridanus Fab. and Notolophus antiqua Linn. are the major pests of primary tasar food plants, namely, Terminalia arjuna Bedd and T. tomentosa W&A causing 15-20% foliage unsuitable for silkworm feeding. The soil application of neem cake (60 kg/acre) and foliar spray of Azadirachtin (6.0 ppm) were found effective in suppressing growth and development of coleopteran grubs and lepidopteran larvae respectively. Based upon these finding, various control measures such as cultural (deep digging of soil), mechanical (collection and destruction of different developmental stages), soil application of neem cake, foliar application of Azadirachtin and combination of these four control measures (IPM) were taken up for evaluation of their efficacy. The averages of leaf yield per plant, leaf damage per cent and number of grubs per cubic feet for each treatment were recorded. Results reveal that IPM was effective (leaf yield/plant-4.266 kg, leaf damage - 11.25% and number of grubs/cft - 0.125) as compared to control (leaf yield/plant - 2.468 kg, leaf damage - 40% and number of grubs/cft. - 1.750) in controlling the defoliators. The foliage damage could be reduced by 71-87% over control by adopting IPM. The safe period for Azadirachtin was found to be 5 days for tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta D.

Full Text

     

Ram Kishore ¹, Pradip Kumar ¹, D. Manjunath ¹, R. K. Datta ¹

Affiliations
1 Pest Management Laboratory Central Sericultural Research & Training Institute, Mysore - 570 008, IN

Abstract

The developmental period of Tetrastichus howardi (Olliff), a parasitoid of the uzi fly, EXoista bombyeis (Louis) showed a negative correlation with temperature. It decreased from 51.70 ± 0.64 days at 15°C to 12.83 ± 0.10 days at 30°C. Progeny production had a positive correlation with temperature upto 25°C. The upper and lower temperature threshold limits of T. howardi were 30°C and 15°C respectively. At 35°C and 20°C temperatures, the females survived for 4.20 ± 0.27 days and 19.80 ± 1.09 days without food, while the males lived for 3.10 ± 0.41 days and 11.70 ± 0.44 days respectively. At similar temperatures, life span for fed females were 9.20 ± 0.83 days and 30.90 ± 0.74 days and those for fed males 4.40 ± 0.41 days and 25.0 ± 0.70 days respectively.

Keywords

Tetrastichus howardi , Parasitoid, Exorista bombycis , Temperature, Biology.

Full Text