~ 792 ~ Journal of Entomology and Zoology Studies 2019; 7(5): 792-796 E-ISSN: 2320-7078 P-ISSN: 2349-6800 JEZS 2019; 7(5): 792-796 © 2019 JEZS Received: 10-07-2019 Accepted: 12-08-2019 SS Ajabe Department of Agricultural Entomology, Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani, Maharashtra, India NE Jayewar Department of Agricultural Entomology, Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani, Maharashtra, India DU Gosavi Department of Agricultural Entomology, Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani, Maharashtra, India Corresponding Author: SS Ajabe Department of Agricultural Entomology, Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani, Maharashtra, India Effect of abiotic factors on incidence of major sucking pests on brinjal SS Ajabe, NE Jayewar and DU Gosavi Abstract An experiment was conducted to observe the effect of abiotic factors on seasonal incidence of major sucking insect-pests on brinjal during kharif-2018 at Experimental farm, Department of Agricultural Entomology, Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani (M.S.). The incidence of sucking insect-pest viz., aphid, leaf hopper and whitefly was observed from 29 th – 50 th (July to December) standard meteorological week (SMW) whereas, mites 37 th -50 th SMW. The incidence of aphid reached to its peak (15.1 aphid/3 leaves) during 42 th SMW (second fortnight of October) and whitefly (23.4 whitefly/3 leaves) during 43 th SMW. While, the maximum population of leaf hopper observed during 37 th SMW (11.8 leaf hopper/3 leaves) i.e. second week of September. Whereas, highest number of mites recorded during 47 th SMW (14.1 mites/4 cm 2 leaves). The correlation studies between incidence of aphid and weather parameters showed significant positive correlation (r= 0.503) with Morning relative humidity. The incidence of leaf hopper showed significant positive correlation with Bright sunshine (hrs) (r= 0.508) while, whitefly showed significant positive correlation with Morning relative humidity(r= 0.687) and Bright sunshine (hrs) (r= 0.663). Keywords: Seasonal incidence, abiotic factors, aphid, leaf hopper, whitefly, mite, brinjal Introduction Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) belongs to the family Solanaceae and is native of India. It is the third most important vegetable crop grown throughout the year in all parts of India and it’s contributes 17.8 per cent to the total production of vegetables in the country.Globally, India ranks second after China in vegetable production and contribute 16.7 per cent to global area and 15.4 per cent to vegetable production (Rai et al., 2014) [14] . The area under cultivation of vegetables was 10290 thousand hectare with production of 175008 thousand MT and productivity 17.01 MT per ha during 2016-17 (Anon., 2017) [1] . In India, brinjal was grown in an area of 669 thousand hectare with production of 12400 thousand MT and productivity of 18.53 MT per ha during 2016-17 (Anon., 2017) [1] . The major brinjal growing states in India are West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Assam and Uttar Pradesh. Among these, the contribution of Maharashtra in brinjal production was 438.28 thousand MT with area occupied of 22.14 thousand ha during 2016-2017 (Anon., 2017) [1] . The biggest threat to brinjal cultivation is the vulnerable and wide spread attack by more than 30 insect-pests right from nursery stage till harvesting. According to, Patel et al. (1970) [12] reported 16 pest species attacking brinjal of which shoot and fruit borer, Leucinodes orbonalis Guenee; Jassid, Amrasca biguttula biguttula (Ishida); whitefly, Bemisia tabaci Gennadius and aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover are the major and important insect pests. Infestation due to jassid, whitefly and shoot and fruit borer results in about 70-92 per cent loss in yield of brinjal (Rosaiah, 2001) [17] . Information on seasonal incidence of the insect pests in brinjal ecosystem and their management, particularly in this agro-climatic situation is meagre. As the meteorological parameters play a vital role in the biology of any pest, the interaction between pest activity and abiotic factors will help in developing predictive models that aids in forecast of pest incidence. Any pest management programme will require the use of monitoring practices to be effective. It is therefore, imperative to study the population fluctuation of the crop pest in relation to weather parameters that largely direct the activity of a given species of insect pest.