Pest succession and seasonal incidence of rice horned caterpillar, Melantis leda isemene Cram. in different rice ecosystem

Abstract

This experiment was conducted at College of Agriculture, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur Chhattisgarh. In the pest succession study, population of horned caterpillar, Melantis leda isemene larvae/adult was first appeared during 32 SMW in month of August with 0.50, 1.25, 1.25, 1.00 and 0.75 larvae/adult/25 sweeps respectively in upland direct seeded rice ecosystem (UDS), MNT = Midland normal transplanted rice ecosystem, MSR = Midland SRI (System of rice intensification) rice ecosystem, LLO = Lowland organic rice ecosystem while 0.25 and 1.00 larvae/adult/25 sweeps in 33 SMW UTP = Upland transplanted rice ecosystem and in 34 SMW LLC = Lowland conventional rice ecosystem. The peak population of pest was recorded during 35, 37, 38 and 39 SMW with 2.25, 3.75, 4.50, 2.00, 3.25 and 7.00 in UTP, UDS, LLC, MSR, MNT and LLO respectively. The pest was disappeared in varied time interval in different rice ecosystem during Kharif season 2013-14. Similarly the seasonal incidence study showed that the highest percent leaf damage/ hill was recorded at 33, 34, 36 and 37 SMW with 3.50, 5.20, 3.00, 3.44, 2.17 and 9.81 percent leaf damage/hill respectively in MNT, LLC, MSR, UDS, UTP and LLO in different month of season. Relative abundance of this pest revealed that in among the ecosystem both population and damage percent of pest was maximum in LLO followed by LLC and UDS.