Abstract
Two thrips species were identified from cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) cultivations in Sri Lanka. They are the cardamom leaf thrips, Panchaetothrips indicus Bagnall (1912) and the cardamom thrips, Sciothrips cardamomi (Ramakrishna, 1935). Sciothrips cardamomi collected from Nuwara Eliya district is emerging as a devastating pest of cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) in the district. Both adults and larvae damage panicles, flowers and capsules of cardamom. Injury to panicles leads to stunted growth, and damaged flowers fall prematurely. Affected tender capsules show scabby growth on the surface as they mature and hence have no market value. To manage this problem and as an immediate control measure, damage causing thrips were identified, damage estimated and seven new generation insecticides were screened at Kabragala Estate in Elamulla, Nuwara Eliya. The estimated direct pod damage was 91.7 ± 3.2%. Severely damaged pods showed significantly lower pod weight than undamaged pods. No significant difference in the pod weight was observed between undamaged pods and pods with less than 2/3 of scabby area. The insecticides Actara (thiamethoxam), Match (lufenuron), Regent (fipronil) and Calypso (thiacloprid) successfully reduced the pod damage while Matric (chromafenozide), Mimic (tebufenozide) and Mospilan (acetamiprid) did not reduce the damage percentage. But higher yields of 335.54 and 304.98 g/bush/harvest were obtained from the plots treated with Actara or Match respectively, in comparison to all other treatments. Therefore, either Actara or Match could be recommended for the management of S. cardamomi in cardamom plantations. Key words: Sciothrips cardamomi, Panchaetothrips indicus, Elettaria cardamomum doi: 10.4038/cjsbs.v37i2.501 Cey. J. Sci. (Bio. Sci.) 37 (2): 137-142, 2008
Highlights
Elettaria cardamomum (L.) (Zingiberaceae), a perennial herbaceous spice has been grown under forest cover as a plantation crop, in the mid country and up country wet zones of Sri Lanka, for more than two centuries
There were no serious pest problems except by the cardamom stem and capsule borer Dichocrocis punctiferalis (Guen.) which has been kept under control through Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
Panchaetothrips indicus was found in other cardamom growing areas and in Nuwara Eliya district
Summary
Panchaetothrips indicus was reported as a pest of turmeric, Curcuma domestica in India. Thrips were not important pests of cardamom in Sri Lanka. After the (Bagnall, 1912) This species has been reported from Sri Lanka as a pest of ginger, Zingiber officinale (Wijeratne, 1999). Panchaetothrips indicus is a sap sucking pest of foliage. Larvae are gregarious in nature and feed on the upper surface of young cardamom leaves. The adult thrips are black in colour and a characteristic feature is that they keep their abdomen turned upwards in a bent position (Singh and Kumaresan, 1996)
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