Abstract
Investigation on major insect pests in tomato was carried out at Agronomy Farm, B. A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agricultural University, Anand during rabi seasons of 2012-13 and 2013-14. Whitefly population was noticed from 39th standard meteorological week (SMW) with maximum population in 45th SMW (2.72 whiteflies/ 3 compound leaves). Aphid population was noticed from 42nd SMW with highest peak in 52nd SMW (0.98). Maximum larval population of leaf miner was observed in 48th SMW with number of larva 0.86 per 3 compound leaves. The activity of Helicoverpa armigera commenced from 39th SMW with larval population in the range of 0.12 to 1.86 per 3 twigs. Correlation study was carried out to find out impact of abiotic factors on the activity of insect pests. Wind speed on whitefly, H. armigera, leaf miner, spider; maximum temperature on aphid and spider; evening relative humidity on whitefly, aphid, leaf miner and evaporation on aphid were key abiotic factors influencing significantly on the fluctuation of the pests.
Highlights
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is one of the most important “protective foods” because of its superior nutritional values
In order to study the instantaneous effect of weather parameters on population fluctuation of various pests, the data of environmental factors of viz., evapotranspiration (ET), bright sunshine (BSS), rainfall (RF), wind direction, wind speed (WS), maximum (Tmax) and minimum (Tmin) temperature, morning (RH1) and evening (RH2) relative humidity as well as morning (VP ) and evening (VP ) vapour pressure were correlated
The data on population of whitefly (Table 1) indicated that the population was commenced from 4th week of September (39th standard meteorological week (SMW)) and continued throughout the crop period
Summary
Investigation on population of insect pests in tomato was carried out at College Agronomy Farm, B. The whole experimental plot was divided into five equal sectors and five plants from each sector were selected for recording the observations. The observations on insect pests were recorded at weekly interval starting from one week after transplanting till the harvest. Observations on L. trifolii were recorded based on mines, larvae and damaged leaves. The number of mines and larval population was recorded from the three compound leaves from the middle portion of the five selected plants while total and damaged leaves were counted from three compound leaves of the same selected plants. Sucking pest’s viz., B. tabaci and A. gossypii were recorded from the three selected compound leaves of the same selected plants. Three twigs were selected from each selected plant for recording the population.
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