A Preliminary Account of Pests of Apple in Madras

Abstract

In recent years, apple cultivation is getting an impetus on the Nilgiris and Kodaikanal hills in Madras. A number of pests have been noted attacking the apple and an account of them is given in this paper. Literature on pests of apple in Europe and America is too voluminous to be cited. Misra (1919) lists about three dozen insects on apple in North India, some of the important ones being Lymantria obfuscata Wlk, Euproctis spp., Belippa laleana Mo., Laspeyresia pomonella L. and Myllocerus 11. pustulata Fst., Fletcher (1919) mentions Lithocolletis gonodes Meyr. as occurring on apple at Parachinar. Pruthi and Batra (1938) mention SanJose scale, Quadras- pidiotus perniciosus C., the woolly aphis, Eriosoma lanigera H, the codling moth, Cydia (Laspeyresia) pomonella L. and a few other pests occurring on the apple in the erstwhile North-West Frontier Province. Rahman and Khan (1941) give an account of the biology and control of the woolly aphis in the Punjab. Chotey Singh (1963) deals with the life history and control of San Jose scale in hill orchards. Sharma and Bhalla (1963) mention Taenio thrips rhopalanten- nalis Sh. as rest on apple blossoms in the Himachal Pradesh. In South India, Ramakrishna Ayyar (1940) records the woolly aphis, Eriosoma lanigera H., the cottony cushion scale, Icerya purchasi M. and the San Jose scale, Quadras- pidiotus perniciosus Call of exotic origin as also the aphid, Dilachnus" krishnii G., the apple scale, Aspidiotus cydoniae C., and the weevils, Myllocerus subfasciatus G. and Myllocerus maculosus D. as pests of apple. In the Scheme for Investigations on Pests of Hill Crops at Kodaikanal, some more pests have been detected and observations were made on the two most serious pests, the woolly aphis and the San Jose scale.