Effect of biotic and abiotic factors on the incidence of major sucking insect pests of mothbean, Vigna aconitifolia (Jacq.) Marechal

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at Agronomy Farm, S.K.N. College of Agriculture, Jobner (Rajasthan) during Kharif, season 2019 - 20. To study the effect of biotic and abiotic factors on the incidence of major sucking insect pests of mothbean, Vigna aconitifolia (Jacq.) Marechal during Kharif, 2019 and 2020. The infestation of major insect pests, leafhopper, Empoasca motti Pruthi and whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Genn), commenced in the second week of August in 2019 and first week of August in 2020 (32nd standard meteorological week, SMW) and reached their peak in first week of September. The population of leafhopper (r=0.71) and whitefly (r= 0.71, 0.72) revealed significant positive correlation with relative humidity in 2019 and 2020. The correlation of leafhopper (r=-0.76) and whitefly (r=-0.78) with maximum temperature was significantly negative in the second year only. The ladybird beetle, Coccinella septempunctata L. had significantly positive correlated with leafhopper (r=0.77, 0.76), whitefly (r=0.75, 0.82) and thrips (r=0.90, 0.75) during both years. The green lacewing population showed positive significant correlation with leafhopper (r=0.75, 0.76), whitefly (r=0.72, 0.79) and thrips (r=0.94, 0.80) during both the years.