Susceptibility of Cowpea varieties to infestation by Pea blue Butterfly, Lampides boeticus (Linnaeus) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted in the Grdarasha Research Station-College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences- Salahaddin University-Erbil-Iraq, to evaluate the susceptibility of four varieties of cowpea crop to infestation by pea blue butterfly, Lampides boeticus L. based on the infestation percentage on different growth stages of the plant including flowering stage, pod stage and the number of holes made by the pest larvae also were calculated. As well as estimating the nature and extent of damages due to pest insect were described. The varieties of cowpea used in this study were Polaris, Japan cowpea, Italy cowpea, and Safal variety. The RCBD design was used for implementing the experiment. The results showed that, the highest percentages of infestation, on the flower stage and pod stage were recorded on the cowpea variety Italy which reached 46.33% and 51.30%, while the lowest percentages were on the Safal variety which were18.52% and 24.86%, respectively, more over the highest number of holes made by the larval stage of the pest insect was recorded on variety Italy 1.99 holes/ pod, and the lowest number was recorded on variety Japan which was 1.24 holes/ pod.