Seasonal incidence of citrus leaf miner, Phyllocnistis citrella Stainton (Lepidoptera: Gracillaridae) in the hilly region of Chikkamagaluru district

Abstract

The study was undertaken at the College of Horticulture, Mudigere, during Kharif, Rabi and Summer season from July 2019 till June 2020 to understand the seasonality of citrus leaf miner on Coorg mandarin. Seasonal incidence revealed the prevalence of citrus leaf miner activity around the year. Roughly three broad peaks could be noticed during the IV week of July 2019, III week of October 2019 and II week of April 2020. The leaf miner activity was predominant from September to December 2019 and less during January and February 2020. Further, the correlation of weather parameters with citrus leaf miner incidence indicated that rainfall, minimum and maximum temperature and minimum relative humidity had a non-significant effect. In contrast, maximum relative humidity had a positive and significant impact (r=0.301).