~ 89 ~ The Pharma Innovation Journal 2022; SP-11(9): 89-91 ISSN (E): 2277-7695 ISSN (P): 2349-8242 NAAS Rating: 5.23 TPI 2022; SP-11(9): 89-91 © 2022 TPI www.thepharmajournal.com Received: 15-07-2022 Accepted: 20-08-2022 MD Aniyaliya Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Agriculture and Entomology, B. A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agriculture University, Anand, Gujarat, India RK Thumar Professor and Head, Department of Nematology, B. A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agriculture University, Anand, Gujarat, India DB Sisodiya Professor and Head, Department of Agriculture and Entomology, B. A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agriculture University, Anand, Gujarat, India NP Trivedi Ph.D., Scholar, Department of Agriculture and Entomology, B. A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agriculture University, Anand, Gujarat, India Corresponding Author: MD Aniyaliya Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Agriculture and Entomology, B. A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agriculture University, Anand, Gujarat, India Feeding preference of Cheilomenes sexmaculata (Fab.) on different species of aphid MD Aniyaliya, RK Thumar, DB Sisodiya and NP Trivedi Abstract An experiment on feeding preference of Cheilomenes sexmaculata (Fabricius) on five different species of aphid viz., mustard aphid, Lipaphis pseudobrassicae, cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii, maize aphid, Rhopalosiphum maidis, cowpea aphid, Aphis craccivora and gaillardia aphid, Uroleucon compositae was conducted under laboratory condition at Department of Agricultural Entomology, B. A. College of Agriculture, AAU, Anand during 2020-21. The most preferred aphid species by C. sexmaculata grub was A. craccivora (10.66 aphids). Among the five species of aphids, the least preferred species were U. compositae (6.26 aphid) and L. pseudobrassicae (7.17 aphids). The feeding preference of C. sexmaculata adult towards different species of aphids, it placed in descending order of feeding preference, A. craccivora (13.41 aphids) > R. maidis (12.53 aphids) > A. gossypii (11.40 aphids) > L. pseudobrassicae (7.97 aphids) > U. compositae (7.06 aphid). The maximum feeding preference was opined to aphid species, A. craccivora while, the minimum preferred species was U. compositae by both the grub and adult stages of C. sexmaculata. Keywords: Cheilomenes sexmaculata, aphids, feeding preference 1. Introduction The coccinellid is one of the most important predator in reducing sucking pest population. Coccinellids are known to have the strongest impact among all aphidophagous insects in aphid population regulation (Hodek, 1970; DeBach and Huffaker, 1971) [4, 3] . Coccinellids, known as ladybugs, ladybeetles or ladybird beetles are one of the most common and easily recognizable invertebrate components of almost every terrestrial ecosystem. Species in the family are so ubiquitous and yet so sensitive to environmental conditions that they have been proposed as indicator species (Omkar and Mishra, 2002) [6] . The ladybird beetle, family coccinellidae comprises approximately 6000 described species in about 360 genera and 42 tribes (Hodek et al., 2012) [5] . India has an enriched biodiversity of economical insects including the coccinellids. Out of these species, Coccinella transversalis (Fabricius), Brumoides suturalis (Fabricius) and Cheilomenes sexmaculata (Fabricius), (Menochilus sexmaculatus Feb.) are the most widely spread and are important bio suppression agents of aphids and occupy a unique place among the aphidophagous predators by virtue of their wide distribution and good predating ability both in the larval and adult stages. A good number of species of this group have been very effective in bringing down the field population of aphids (Chowdhuri and Pal, 1975) [2] . Common ladybird beetle, C. sexmaculata as the predominant species in middle Gujarat (Tank, 2006) [11] . Ladybird beetles are one of the beautiful insects found in all parts of the world. immature of ladybird beetles and adult stages play important role in biological ecosystems and have been used in different regions of the world to manage pests such as aphids, mealybugs, thrips and mites (Tank et al., 2010) [12] . Among all the natural enemies, aphidophagous coccinellids especially Coccinella septempunctata is well known potential aphid predator and manage the pest under field condition (Bilashini and Singh, 2009; Sethi and Atwal, 1964) [1, 8] in mustard ecosystem. Both grubs and adults feed voraciously on mustard aphid but their feeding efficiency varies from stage to stage and at different temperatures. The indiscriminate use of pesticides causes phytotoxicity and death of beneficial organism such as parasites, parasitoids, micro-organisms and pollinators (Southwood and Henderson, 2000) [10] . Therefore, it is felt needed to find out suitable and safer insecticides against coccinellid beetle. The amount of prey consumed effects on the development, survival and reproduction of predators. Therefore, one must study predator responses to these factors to understand the ecology of predators including the searching behaviour, foraging efficiency and prey consumption.