~ 1113 ~
Journal of Entomology and Zoology Studies 2018; 6(4): 1113-1115
E-ISSN: 2320-7078
P-ISSN: 2349-6800
JEZS 2018; 6(4): 1113-1115
© 2018 JEZS
Received: 17-05-2018
Accepted: 20-06-2018
A Ghosh
Department of Agricultural
Meteorology and Physics,
Bidhan Chandra Krishi
Viswavidyalaya, West Bengal,
India
M Bhattacharyya
Department of Agricultural
Entomology, Bidhan Chandra
Krishi Viswavidyalaya, West
Bengal, India
Correspondence
A Ghosh
Department of Agricultural
Meteorology and Physics,
Bidhan Chandra Krishi
Viswavidyalaya, West Bengal,
India
Impact of agroclimatic factors on pest population
of summer brinjal
A Ghosh and M Bhattacharyya
Abstract
One field experiment was to study the population dynamics of jassids and white fly in brinjal in relation
to the prevailing weather conditions conducted at Regional Research Station, New Alluvial Zone, Nadia,
West Bengal, India in the year 2017 during last week of March to last week of June. Numbers of jassids
and white fly per leaf varied from 6.9 to 4.1 and 2.7 to 6.0 respectively. Results showed that jassid
population was negatively correlated with the maximum air temperature (-0.44) and positively correlated
with the minimum air temperature (0.27). On the other hand maximum air temperature showed positive
association with whitefly population (0.14) while minimum air temperature (-0.10) had adverse effect on
the numbers of white fly per leaf. Best-fit regression equations indicated that each weather factor
exhibited polynomial relationship with the numbers of insect.
Keywords: Brinjal, correlation, jassid, weather parameters, white fly
1. Introduction
Brinjal (Solanum melongena) is one of the important vegetable crops grown in India
[3]
. In
India, the crop is cultivated in 0.47 M ha area with 7.67 MT production and an average
productivity of 16.30 MT/ ha
[9]
. Production of this crop was adversely affected by pest
incidence. A large number of sucking insect may attack this crop
[4]
. White fly (Bemisia tabaci
Gennadius) and jassid (Amrasca biguttula biguttula) are important insect pests of summer
brinjal. Brinjal crop is very much susceptible to damage by jassids. Optimum temperature
range for development of white fly is 20 ˚C to 30 °C
[13]
.
Life cycle of jassids is greatly influenced by temperature
[1]
. Jassid population are greatly
hampered by several weather parameters. Earlier experimental results showed that jassid and
white fly population in summer brinjal were at the peak level during the month of April and
May respectively
[6]
. Crop in its vegetative phase is more vulnerable to damage by sucking
insects because of the succulent nature of the plant due to the abundance of chlorophyll
[10]
.
Temperature and relative humidity have direct and linear relationship with jassid population.
The optimum ranges of temperature, relative humidity and vapour pressure deficit for jassid
population were 32.0 to 34.0 °C, 81-92 per cent and 1.0 to 6.0 mm of Hg, respectively
[11]
.
This study was carried out to find the population dynamics of jassid and white fly in summer
sown brinjal in relation to the prevailing agro-climatic condition.
2. Materials and methods
2.1 Details of the experiment: One field experiment was conducted at Regional Research
Station, New Alluvial Zone, Nadia, West Bengal, India in the year 2017 during last week of
March to last week of June to study the population dynamics of jassids and white fly in brinjal.
The crop was transplanted on 9
th
March. Name of the variety was Muktakeshi. Numbers of
jassids and white fly were counted every day and average numbers of jassids and white fly per
leaf were calculated.
2.2 Agroclimatic factors: Mean and accumulated weather parameters viz. mean maximum (T
max) and minimum (T min) air temperatures, total rainfall (R), mean evaporation (E), mean
morning relative humidity (RH I) and afternoon relative humidity (RH II), mean morning
vapour pressure (VP I) and afternoon vapour pressure (VP II) for each SMW (Standard
Meteorological Week) were recorded from the principal agro meteorological observatory.
2.3 Statistical analysis: Correlation analysis was carried out between insect numbers per leaf