Kolla Sreedevi ¹, Veena N. V. ¹, Sunil Joshi ¹, Mohan M. ², M. Sampath Kumar ¹, Mahendiran G. ¹, Venkatesan T. ², Shylesha A. N. ³

Affiliations
1 Division of Germplasm Collection and Characterization, ICAR - National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources, H. A. Farm post, Hebbal, Bellary Road, Bengaluru – 560024, Karnataka, IN
2 Division of Genomic Resources, ICAR - National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources, H. A. Farm post, Hebbal, Bellary Road, Bengaluru – 560024, Karnataka, IN
3 Division of Germplasm Conservation and Utilization, ICAR - National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources, H. A. Farm post, Hebbal, Bellary Road, Bengaluru – 560024, Karnataka, IN

Abstract

The cassava mealybug, Phenacoccus manihoti Matile-Ferrero is one of the most serious pests of cassava worldwide, which got recently introduced into India (traced in Kerala) as a potential invasive pest. Studies were carried out to record the incidence of mealybug, P. manihoti and its natural enemies on different varieties of cassava in Namakkal dt. of Tamil Nadu during June 2020. The observations were taken in the field in situ as well in the collected mealybug infested twigs in the laboratory. Results revealed that all the three surveyed cassava varieties viz., Mulluvadi, Thailand white and Shree Atulya were found severely infested with cassava mealybug. A huge number of coccinellid beetles were collected from the P. manihoti colonies, which were identified as Hyperaspis maindroni Sicard, 1929 (Coccinellidae:Coccinellinae:Hyperaspidini). Molecular characterization of both grub and adult beetle of H. maindroni was carried out to confirm its identity.

Keywords

Cassava mealybug, Coccinellidae, Hyperaspis maindroni, Phenacoccus manihoti, predator

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