Morphology of gall insect, Trioza fletcheri minor Crawford and gall infected leaves of tasar food plants

Abstract

The Psyllid, Trioza fletcheri minor is the major pest of primary tasar food plants viz., Terminalia arjuna Bedd and Terminalia tomentosa W&A which causes qualitative and quantitative loss of leaves. It’s a serious pest causing 40- 50 % crop loss during peak period (August-September). The leaves of food plants bearing galls were collected from infested plants grown in the Field Laboratory of Central Tasar Research and Training Institute, Nagri, Ranchi during year 2016. They were kept in plastic bags and placed in laboratory in ambient temperature for the emergence of adult gall flies. The galls on the leaves were observed under dissecting microscope. Photographs of nymph, adult and wing of gall fly were taken under binocular microscope (Carl Zeiss Microscope). Under this study we assessed the morphology of gall viz., egg, nymph and adult and morphology of gall infested leaves of T. arjuna and T. tomentosa. Minimize the crop loss due to gall insect we can adapt the IPM package for higher crop yield and minimum environmental pollution.