A report on occurrence, morphology, population ecology and infestation of Ceroplastes rusci (Linnaeus: 1758) in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India. Coccidae: Coccoidea: Hemiptera: Insecta

Abstract

The presence of Ceroplastes rusci, the Fig wax scale infestation was observed on Syzygium cumini, the Indian blackberry or Jamun tree twigs and leaves in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India. The number of adult female scale insects, per leaf, was found 1 to 6, and per twig the number was observed as 1 to 9. The present study was carried out to assess the presence of scale insects per leaf and a single terminal twig. After analysis of collected data, the following results were calculated for the presence of scale insect on a leaf- as the mean value was calculated- 2.1666, SD- 1.6966, variance- 2.8787 and margin of error- 0.4897. Data were analyzed similarly for presence of scales per twig. The calculated values for twig were as- mean-3.83, SD-2.48, variance- 6.15 and margin of error- 0.7159. The percent infestation on Syzygium cumini plant on twig/ leaf was calculated and found that 52.30% plant twigs were affected. The categorized infested twigs with leaves showed 13.84% of grade one as low (+), 16.62% of grade two as moderate (++) and 21.53% of grade three as high (+++) level of infestation. The 47.69% twigs were found showing absence (-) of scale insects. Syzygium cumini was the type plant, found affected in Muzaffarnagar, the region of planes of northern India, indicating the ecological relationship and interaction between scale insect and affected plants. New generation was observed in first half of July 2023. No other type of surveyed plant was found infested.