Abstract
ABSTRACT The pink hibiscus mealybug, Maconellicoccus hirsutus (Green) (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) is amajor sucking pest of mulberry, infests tender shoot and causes bunchy top which leads to retardedgrowth of the plants. The leaves in the infested shoots become unfit for young age silkworm rearing. Infestation of M. hirsutus is often associated with attendant ants and they help spreading of the pest besides protecting from natural enemies. Thus, a study on the association of ants with M. hirsutus andtheir influence on the predatory fauna in mulberry gardens was carried out in southern Tamil Nadu. Four ant species viz. Monomorium indicum, Solenopsis geminata, Tapinoma sessile and Camponotuscompressus were found to have association with the pink mealy bug in mulberry garden. Among thespecies, M. indicum was found predominant accounting for an average of 37.78 numbers per mealybuginfested shoot whereas the rest of the species S. geminata (3.3), T. sessile (1.67) and C. compressus(0.56) were exhibited least association. The average mealy bug population was comparatively higherin ant attended colonies (61.22) than unattended ones (49.22). The population of predatory faunadecreased significantly (0.96) on ants association compared to the mealy bug infested shoots free fromthe ants (4.75) which indicates the deterring potentiality of the attendant ants. Destruction of thepredominant M. indicum colonies in mulberry ecosystem could help increase the field activities of predatory fauna against M. hirsutus.
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