Screening of Bt cotton genotypes for their reaction to shoot weevil, Alcidodes affaber Aurivillius infestation and their biochemical analysis

Abstract

Screening of Bt cotton genotypes for their reaction to shoot weevil, Alcidodes affaber Aurivillius infestation and their biochemical analysis revealed that, Bt cotton hybrids viz., Neeraja, Cash, Bunny and Brahma were found to be promising lines by registering lower incidence of shoot weevil followed by Miracle, RCH 2Bt, DCH 32, Steplon, Puli BGII, Chetak, Mallika, Bindas, Chiranjeevi and Sudarshan. On the contrary, Bt genotypes viz., Shalimar and MRC-7351 were found to be susceptible lines by recording higher shoot weevil incidence as compared to rest of the genotypes. Correlation coefficients indicated that, moisture percentage and total sugars have positive relationship with shoot weevil infestation and gossypol had no influence on infestation. Infestation was negatively related with tannin and total phenol content.