Insect Pests of Zucchini and their Natural Enemies

Abstract

Zucchini (Cucurbita pepo L.) is a trending crop for every health enthusiast today. The market demands for quality zucchini, bearing the best shape and size, free from all blemishes have gone sky high recently. Nevertheless, this cucurbitaceous crop is susceptible to many pests and diseases during its growth period, including its post-harvest life, which bring down the yield both in terms of quality and quantity.The time and intensity of the incidence of the pest varies greatly with crop growth stages. Therefore, an investigation was carried out during 2021-2022, for studying the incidence of various insect pests’ of zucchini and their natural enemies under naturally ventilated polyhouse condition at the experimental farm of Department of Horticulture, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam, India. Five insect pests viz., Aleurodicus dispersus Russell, Aphis gossypii Glover, Aulacophora foveicollis Lucus, Bactrocera cucurbitae Coquillett and Pseudodendrothrips species Niwa were found to be very active from October, 2021 till March, 2022. Among them, A. dispersus and A. gossypii caused viral infection (zucchini yellow vein mosaic) in the early vegetative stage whereas B. cucurbitae caused severe damage by distorting and malformation of fruits during the flowering and fruiting stage. Two predators, namely Coccinella transversalis F. and Coccinella septempunctata L. were abundant during the growing period which fed on these insect pests.