Scirtothrips dorsalis, Hood (Thysanoptera: Thripidae): A major pest of tea plantations in North East India

Abstract

Scirtothrips dorsalis Hood, is a polyphagous insect found colonizing on several crops including cotton, chilli, mango, pepper, citrus, grapes, strawberry, and peanuts including tea. Tea thrips feed the host plant tissues using the piercing and sucking mouth parts and consume the plant sap resulting curling and silvering of the tea leaves, which causes considerable yield loss in India, during the last few decades, the infestation of thrips has been increasing and it get recognized as a foremost sucking pests in the tea cultivated regions in India. Besides deforestation, climate change, continuous application of synthetic pesticides the biological characteristics like high reproductive rate, short generation time, has led to resistance to synthetic insecticides along with their manipulation in periodical outbreaks. In this review, all accessible information on S. dorsalis damaging the tea plants have been summarized in framework of its management strategies.