Succession of Insect-pests Infesting Sesame during Summer

Abstract

Field experiment was carried out during summer (February–May, 2022) at Regional Research Station, Anand Agricultural University, Anand, Gujarat, India to find out the succession of insect pests and its fluctuation under the impact of biotic and abiotic factors on the abundance of major insect pests on sesame. Results revealed that the population of whitefly and jassid started from 10^th standard meteorological week and till the 20^th standard meteorological week. Population of Antigastra catalaunalis was first recorded during 12^th standard meteorological week and reached at peak level during 15^th standard meteorological week. Leaf, flower and capsule damage continuously increased and attained at peak during 16^th and 20^th standard meteorological week, respectively. The population of coccinellids and spider was highest during 14^th and 15^th standard meteorological week, respectively. The correlation with abiotic factors indicated that whitefly population showed highly significant negative correlation with wind speed and significantly negative correlation with minimum temperature, evening relative humidity and evening vapour pressure. Whereas, jassid population exhibited significantly negative correlation with WS, RH₂ and VP₂. However, A. catalaunalis showed significantly negative correlation with MinT, RH₂ and VP₂. Leaf damage showed significant negative correlation with RH₂ and VP₂. The flower damage had highly significant correlation with VP₂ and significant negative correlation were observed with MinT and RH₂. While, capsule damage had significantly positive correlation with MinT and VP₂. Whereas, the natural enemies viz., coccinellids and spider exhibited significantly negative correlation with RH₂.