Evaluation of altered sowing date on population build-up of cotton whitefly (Bemisia tabaci Gennadius) and its natural enemies

Abstract

The experiment was carried out with an objective of studying the effect of altered date of sowing on population build-up of cotton whitefly and its natural enemies. The result found that, the whitefly adults and nymph’s population was maximum at late sown crop on 20th June (4.96 adult/leaf and 5.96 nymphs/leaf) while, the minimum population was found at timely sown crop on 7th May (2.48 adult/leaf and 4.62 nymphs/leaf). The late sown crop was heavily attacked with CLCV disease (Cotton Leaf Curl Virus). The whitefly natural enemies mean population had significant positive correlation with adult whitefly population and with whitefly nymph mean population.