Insect Resistance with Special Reference to Mustard Aphid

Abstract

Cruciferous oilseeds are attacked by a large number of insect pests (Lamb 1989). Blossom beetles, Meligethes spp., and other species of Coleoptera like Psylliodes chrysocephala and Ceutorhynchus spp. are severe pests in Europe. Chrysomelid beetles, Phyllotreta spp. and Entomoscelis americana, are the important pests in Canada. The Indian mustard aphid, Lipaphis erysimi (Fig. 1) is by far the most devastating insect on Brassica oilseeds in India. The aphid is reported to cause an average loss of about 50% in seed yield (Bakhetia 1983). Bagrada cruciferarum and Athalia proxima on germinating and young crop, and Agrotis sp. on rainfed crop, are other sporadic pests in India (Sekhon, unpubl.). Out of the 38 insect pests attacking rapeseed and mustard crops in India, ten are of particular economic significance (Bakhetia 1987). The cabbage aphid, Brevicoryne brassicae,a pest on Brassica vegetables in temperate and warm temperate parts of the world, attacks Brassica oilseeds only rarely (Blackman and Eastop, 1985). The detailed list of the important pests of brassicas is presented in Table 1.KeywordsBrassica SpeciesAphid PopulationBrassica JunceaFlea BeetleLeaf MinerThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.