616 Environment & Ecology 33 (2) : 616—620, April—June 2015 Website: environmentandecology.com ISSN 0970-0420 Pest Complex and Their Succession on Sapota (Manilkara achras (Mill.) Forsberg) Under Hill Zone of Karnataka Ravulapenta Sathish, D. Jemla Naik, A. C. Veerendra, R. Murali Received 12 June 2014; Accepted 30 July 2014; Published online 18 August 2014 Abstract Fiften species of insect pests were re- corded at various stages of sapota crop during 2012- 13 under hill zone of Karnataka. Among them only eight species viz., Banisia myrsusalis elearalis Walker, Anarsia achrasella Bradley, Bactrocera dor- salis (Hendle), B. zonata (Saunders), Achrocercops gemoniella Stainton, Icerya sp., Coccus viridis Green Planococcus lilacinus Cockerell and Planococcus citri Risso attained major status prevailing in a se- vere form a long time. Four species were recorded only as stray pests during crop growth. The remain- ing three insect species appeared as minor pests with- out causing any severe and perceptible damage to the crop. Keywords Pest complex, Succession, Sapota. R. Sathish*, D. J. Naik, A. C. Veerendra, R. Murali Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, UAHS, Navile, Shimoga, Karnataka 577204, India e-mail: sathishento12@gmail.com *Correspondence Introduction India is considered to be the largest producer of sa- pota in the world and it is being cultivated in an area of about 1.60 lakh hectare with a production of 1424.0 metric tons [1]. Out of the total fruit production in Inmdia, Karnataka ranks first contributing 26.5% of total production of sapota [1]. The total area of sa- pota grown in Karnataka is about 30.8 thousand hect- ares with an annual production of 377.8 lakh metric tonnes and productivity of 12.287 metric tons per hectare [1]. Sapota tree is attacked by about 16 insect pests, which includes burd borer, chiku moth, mid rib folder, leaf miner, fruit flies and sucking pests [2]. Considering the need to have an effective man- agement strategy the present study which deals with various pests attacking sapota at different crop stages during both on season and off seasons was taken up. The observations were documented during 2012-2013 at the Zonal Horticultural Research Station (ZHRS), Mudigere, Karnataka, India. (The authors are thankful to the Dr C. A. Viraktamath UAS, GKVK, Bangalore for sparing of his valuable time to identify the insect species during the present investigation). Materials and Methods To study the seasonal incidence of insect pest on sapota, observations were done in sapota orchard of