Population Dynamics of Sucking Pests on Bhendi, Abelmoschus esculentus L. (Moench)

Abstract

Field investigations were made during 2017-2018 (Aug-April) in bhendi Co4 hybrid raised under organic conditions in farmer’s field of Thondamuthur block, Coimbatore. The population dynamics of sucking pests in bhendi viz., leafhopper (Amrasca biguttula biguttula Ishida), aphid (Aphis gossypii Glover), whitefly (Bemisia tabaci Gennadius), thrips (Thrips tabaci Linnman) and mealybug (Maconellicoccus hirsutus) were assessed in different growth periods of the crop and correlated with weather parameters. The studies revealed that incidence of sucking pests started during August and reached its peak during October under organic conditions. Correlation studies between the sucking pest complex and weather factors revealed that there was significant positive correlation with maximum temperature and relative humidity. whereas, minimum temperature and wind velocity showed negative correlation to all above mentioned sucking pests. The rainfall favoured the activity of all the sucking pests with positive correlation except mealybug. Regression analysis revealed that for every unit increase in maximum temperature, the leafhoppers population got increased by 0.08 numbers. Similarly, for every unit increase in relative humidity the whiteflies population got increased by 0.02 numbers.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.29321/MAJ.2018.000129

Pages

206 - 209

Creative Commons

Copyright

© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Madras Agricultural Students' Union in Madras Agricultural Journal (MAJ). This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited by the user.

Keywords