Biology of green apple aphid, Aphis pomi De Geer on high density apple plantations in Kashmir province of J&K UT, India

Abstract

As Aphis pomi is one of the important and emerging pest especially on apple plants from past few years as its huge incidence has attracted the attention of research workers across the globe especially in apple growing regions. Currently the most important constraint for apple producers is that its management becomes difficult due to resurgence problems and also their high fecundity rate, complex life cycle. So our motive to study biology of Aphis pomi is to find a better management strategy as biological study of insect is one of the key factor for its management. In the present study the biological parameters evaluated were duration and survival% of nymphal instars, daily and total fecundity and adult longevity by various methods under laboratory conditions. Also the data on pre-oviposition, oviposition and post-oviposition was recorded. We found that duration of total nymphal period, pre-ovipositional period, ovipositional period, post ovipositional period and total life period varied from 13.5-15.5 (14.52±0.070), 10.3-12.5 (14.52±0.07), 10- 20 (13.4±0.65), 2.0-3.0 (2.4±0.17), and 22-35 (30.28±1.51) days respectively. The morphometric were also studied during the period of nymphal development till adults. The morphometric analysis showed gradual developmental variations from first instar to adult stage in size, shape, colour and number of characters.