Abstract

White grubs are the major pests of several commercial crops viz ., groundnut, sugarcane, potato, maize, arecanut, etc. During surveys carried out in sugarcane fields of western Uttar Pradesh for white grub larval collection, it was observed that larvae of Lepidiota mansueta Burmeister (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) collected from sugarcane fields of Jallopur village, Amroha district, Uttar Pradesh, India exhibited the occurrence of mites on their bodies. The mites were identified as Tyrophagous putriscentiae, Ryzoglyphus sp. and Sancassania karnatakaensis , of which the predominant species was S. karnatakaensis . Subsequently studies were conducted to observe the occurrence of S. karnatakaensis on reared larvae of five major white grub species viz ., Holotrichia nagpurensis Khan and Ghai, Anomala bengalensis (Blanchard), Anomala dimidiata (Hope), Maladera insanabilis (Brenske) and Lepidiota mansueta Burmeister in the laboratory. The colonization of mite S. karnatakaensis was observed on all five species with variations in the percent occurrence. The mite colonization was high in L. mansueta , which gradually led to 98% mortality, indicating the potentiality of mite as biocontrol agent.

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