Seasonal incidence of sucking pests of okra along with natural enemies in Khandesh region of Maharashtra

Abstract

Studies on seasonal incidence of sucking pests of okra along with natural enemies were undertaken at research farm of Department of Agricultural Entomology, College of Agriculture, Dhule during Kharif 2015. A study on seasonal incidence of sucking pests was undertaken on Kharif crop, revealed that leafhoppers incidence reached its peak activity during the second week of September (23 leafhoppers/3 leaves/plant) whereas the peak incidence of aphids was noticed in the first week of September (43.3 aphids/3 leaves/plant). The peak incidence of the whiteflies was recorded during the second week of September (21 whiteflies/3 leaves/plant), whereas peak activity of predator lady bird beetle was reported during second week of September (26 lady bird beetle/plant), when the population of sucking pests was at its peak. The incidence of aphids (r = 0.170), whiteflies (r = 0.287) and leafhoppers (r = -0.060) do not show any significant correlation with maximum temperature. The minimum temperature showed positive non-significant correlation with leafhoppers (r = 0.131) and positive significant correlation with aphids (r = 0.644*). The morning relative humidity showed positive non significant correlation with occurrence of the leafhoppers (r = 0.454), aphids (r = 0.458), whitefly (r = 0.313). Similarly, the evening humidity showed negative non-significant correlation with the pests such as leafhoppers (r = -0.100), aphids (r = -0.223) and whiteflies (r = -0.339) during Kharif 2015 season. The rainfall had non-significant effect at 5 per cent and 1 per cent level with whitefly, aphid and leafhopper.