www.IndianJournals.com Members Copy, Not for Commercial Sale Downloaded From IP - 14.139.240.161 on dated 6-Mar-2015 Ann. Pl. Protec. Sci. 15 (1) : 73-76 (March, 2007) 73 Trap catches and seasonal incidence of Spodoptera litura on cauliflower and tomato Trap Catches and Seasonal Incidence of Spodoptera litura on Cauliflower and Tomato Md. Monobrullah, Poonam Bharti, Uma Shankar, R.K. Gupta, Kuldeep Srivastava and Hafeez Ahmad Division of Entomology, FOA, S.K. Univ. of Agril. Sci. & Tech. Udheywalla, Jammu 180 002, India ABSTRACT The adult abundance of Spodoptera litura in pheromone traps was recorded during 19 th standard week which continued up to 43 rd standard week, exhibiting three ‘V’ shaped oscillations during the period. Thereafter, a sharp decline was noticed and population ceased completely from 49 th standard week onwards up to 5 th standard week. Peak larval population on tomato was noticed in 25 th standard week whereas, in cauliflower the larval population attained its peak during 43 rd standard week (43 larvae/10 plants). The weather parameters were correlated with insect pest incidence and was found that the number of moths/trap/week exhibited significant positive correlation with maximum (r = 0.813) and minimum (r = 0.805) temperatures. The combined influence of the weather parameters strongly influenced the population build up of the pest with the coefficient of determination, R 2 values of 0.75 (moth catch), 0.82 (larval population on tomato) and 0.72 (larval population) on cauliflower. Key words : Brassica, Seasonal incidence, Spodoptera litura. The tobacco caterpillar, Spodoptera litura is an economically serious polyphagous pest with high reproductive capacity and ability to migrate over large distance in the adult stage. Although, it was considered as sporadic pest in Jammu but for last few years severe outbreaks of adult population of this pest has been noticed in the pheromone traps. Surprisingly, the larval population remains comparatively low on the major host crops thereby, indicating its sustenance on wild host plants. In order to explore these aspects for effective management of this pest, the studies on pest monitoring, larval trend on different crops and natural regulation of this pest by abiotic factors were studied. Materials and Methods The present study was conducted using pheromone traps in tomato and cauliflower crops. The pheromone traps and septa were procured from Biotech International Ltd., New Delhi. The septa were replaced at fortnightly interval. The traps were installed at 20 m distance in field at 1 m above crop canopy. The males trapped were counted daily in each trap. The number of adult males caught/trap/week was recorded. To study the larval build-up of S. litura on tomato crop, cv. Pusa Ruby was grown in farmer’s field at Udheywalla, Jammu. The observations were recorded one week after transplanting of crop. Similarly, to monitor the larval trend of S. litura on cauliflower cv. Selection-4 was grown in rabi 2004. Weekly records on the number of larvae were made on 10 randomly selected plants at three spots. The observations were recorded one week after transplanting of crop. The correlation for estimation of larval density in relation to number of moths trapped was also calculated.