Inheritance of resistance to podfly and podborer in the interspecific cross of pigeonpea

Abstract

Pigeonpea, Cajanus cajan, is an important grain legume of Asia and Africa. The podfly, Melanagromyza obtusa, and the podborer, Helicoverpa armigera, are the major insect pests of this crop. An accession (JM 4147) of the wild species Cajanus scarabaeoides appears to possess resistance to these insect pests. For investigating the inheritance of resistance a cross was made between the susceptible cultivar Pant A-3 as female and the wild species. The parental lines and their F1, F2 and backcross generations were studied. For podfly, the per cent pod damage was recorded on individual plants. The results suggested that resistance to podfly is governed by the two recessive genes. In the podborer screening for antixenosis was carried out through the dual-choice arena test. The results indicated that a single dominant gene is involved in the antixenosis.