Population dynamics of major insect pests in bottle gourd

Abstract

The experiment on population dynamics of insect pests in bottle gourd under semi-arid conditions was carried out, revealed that peak infestation of fruit fly Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett) (49.36%) reached during the 6th November 2023, and after that it declined gradually. The infestation of aphid Aphis gossypii (Glover), white fly Bemisia tabaci (Genn.), red pumpkin beetle Aulacophora foveicollis (Lucas), hadda beetle Epilachnini demurli (Mulsent), mirid bug Nesidiocoris cruentatus (Ballard) and leaf miner Liriomyza trifoli (Burgess) started in the first week of August (36th SMW). The infestation of A. gossypii (120.1 aphids three leaves/plant), B. tabaci (12.3 whiteflies per three leaves/ plant), A. foveicollis (5.9 adults/plant), E. demurli (4.7 adults/plant), N. cruentatus (12.9 mirid bugs three leaves/plant) and L. trifoli (53 % leaf infestation) reached its peak level in 44th, 40th, 41st, 43rd, 40th, and 43rd SMW respectively, after that it declined gradually. The correlation Z. cucurbitae infestation with abiotic factors revealed a significant negative correlation with minimum RH (r = -0.552), and maximum RH (r = - 0.484). There existed a significant negative correlation between yield loss and minimum RH (r = -0.689).