Arthropod Pests and Their Natural Enemies Associated with Cotton in India: A Review

Abstract

Globally cotton is the most important natural fibre crop being cultivated commercially for domestic textile needs and export. Cotton plays an important role in India’s economy, occupies largest acreage and highest production in the world. In India, cotton is being grown in 10 major states divided in 3 distinct zones viz., north, central and south with varying climate and soil. Despite large acreage, cotton productivity in India is far below world average due to variety of reasons. Among them damage caused due to arthropod pests is vital. In this article authors have attempted through extensive literature survey, to provide up to date information on arthropod pests and their natural enemies associated with cotton crop in India. It is observed that, in India, cotton crop is attacked by 251 arthropod pest species (including insect and mites) belonging to 9 insect orders and 1 order from Acarina. Among these, about 12 species of insects are major pests causing significant losses to cotton crop while remaining species are either occasional, sporadic or minor in nature. Overall these pests cause economic damage to cotton crop in a range between 20-60 per cent. The major arthropod pests are sucking insects namely leafhopper Amrasca biguttula biguttula (Ishida), aphid Aphis gossypii Glover, thrips Thrips tabaci Lindeman., whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius), Cotton mealybug Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley, Papaya mealybug Paracoccus marginatus Williams and Granara de Willink, and Indian cotton mirid bug Creontiades biseratense (Distant). The bollworm complex is another major group of insects that attack cotton and comprises of American bollworm Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner), spotted bollworms Earias insulana (Boisduval), E. vitella (F.) and pink bollworm Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders). Other pests like stem weevil Pempherulus affinis Faust and tobacco caterpillar Spodoptera litura F., are also categorized as major pests. A rich fauna of 368 natural enemies (including 174 species of predators and 194 species of parasitoids/parasites) play significant role as biological control agents to check arthropod pests in cotton ecosystems of India. In this review there is addition of 85 arthropod pests over previously reported 166 arthropod pests. This updated information on cotton pests and their important natural enemies may serve as an important guide to researchers and policy makers in carrying out potential pest risk assessment and devising appropriate management strategies for economically damaging cotton pests.