SCREENING OF SOME NEW HYBRID GENOTYPES OF MAIZE FOR THEIR RESISTANCE/SUSCEPTIBILITY AGAINST CHILO PARTELLUS (SWINHOE) (LEPIDOPTERA: PYRALIDAE) AND ATHERIGONA SOCCATA (RONDANI) (DIPTERA: MUSCIDAE) Keywords: Maize, Chilo partellus, Atherigona soccata Cite this article as: 77 Chatha, A.A., M. Asrar, H. Anwar, M. Azeem, M. Hussain, K. Samiullah, S. Mubarik, D. Hussain,M. Ali, S. Asghar, H. Jabbar, G. Hussain and S. Hussain, 2018. Screening of some new hybrid genotypes of maize for their resistance/susceptibility against Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) and Atherigona soccata (Rondani) (Diptera: Muscidae). Pak. Entomol., 40(2):85-89. 85 INTRODUCTION Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the major Kharif crops in Pakistan with highest yield among the cereals. It is cultivated approximately on an area of 1015 thousand hectare with total annual grain production of 3313 thousand tons and an average yield of 3264 kg/hectare (Anonymous, 2007). Maize contributes about 6.4% of the total production of the country. Its grain contains considerably more starch, fat and vitamin A as compared to other cereal. Maize is recommended to heart patients due to cholesterol free nature. (Maitti and Wische- Ebelling, 1998). The most important insect pests in maize are the maize and jowar stem borer (Chilo partellus Swinhoe) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), Shoot fly (Atherigona soccata Rondani) (Diptera: Muscidae), Army worm (Mythimna separata Walker) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and many other species of aphids. The infestation ultimately results in total failure of crop (Singh and Sharma, 1984). In the most infested area, the insect damages in maize crop are up to 50% which is then liable to secondary attack by another pathogen (Lisoweiz, 2000). Maize stem borer, C. partellus (Swinhoe) is the most notorious pest of maize crop. Almost 75% damage of 50% crop occurs due to attack of maize stem borer (Latif et al., 1960). In case of severe infestation, it causes the total failure of crop (Rafique, 1986). It is one of the major limiting factors responsible for low yield in Pakistan. In Pakistan, there is no maize cultivar resistant to borers. Generally, it is controlled by ABSTRACT ARTICLE INFORMATION Received: July 02, 2018 Received in revised form: December 08, 2018 Accepted: December 17, 2018 Maize stem borer, Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) and shoot fly, Atherigona soccata (Rondani) are major insect pests of maize. Management of these insect pests by using traditional chemicals is not encouraged due to occurrence of pest-resistance pest-resurgence and environmental pollution associated with their successive use. Maximum available varieties are attacked by C. partellus and A. soccata and receive huge yield losses by these insects. Screening of ten new hybrid genotypes of maize (FH-949, FH-930, FH-925, FH963, FH-985, 32-F-10, 6525, NK-8441, DK-6124 and FH-810) against C. partellus and A. soccata is the main purpose of this research project. Physico-morphic plant characters of the selected hybrid genotypes has been studied. Experiments were carried out at the research farms of University of Agriculture, Faisalabad by using Randomized Complete Block Design. All the hybrid lines differed significantly regarding plant infestation percentage for the both pests. The hybrid lines FH-810 showed comparatively resistant trend with minimum infestation i.e. 0.92 and 0.16% for maize stem borer and shoot fly, respectively, whereas FH-949 appeared as susceptible hybrid lines showing maximum plant infestation caused by maize stem borer (6.67%) and shoot fly (3.00%). Cob height, stem diameter and leaf trichomes exerted negative and significant correlation with both the insect pests under test. Whereas number of nodes per plant, plant height, length of central spike and cob length did not show significant correlation, but the response of these characters were found to be negative on the pests' infestation. *Corresponding Author: Muhammad Asrar E-mail: asraragri@gmail.com Journal homepage: www.pakentomol.com Pakistan Entomologist 1 1* 1 1 1 1 1 Awais Ali Chatha , Muhammad Asrar , Hina Anwar , Muhammad Azeem , Makhdoom Hussain , Khizar Samiullah , Sami Mubarik , 2 3 1 1 1 1 Dilbar Hussain, Muhammad Ali, Sabeen Asghar , Hussnian Jabbar , Ghulam Hussain and Saddam Hussain . 1 Department of Zoology, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan 2 Entomological Research Institute, Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Faisalabad, Pakistan 3 Institute of Agricultural Sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan