INTER-RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ABIOTIC FACTORS AND POPULATION DYNAMICS OF SUCKING INSECT PESTS IN GENETICALLY MODIFIED COTTON

ROOMI RAWAL¹*, K.K. DAHIYA², ROSHAN LAL³, ADESH KUMAR^4
1Department of Entomology, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, 125001
²Department of Entomology, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, 125001
³Department of Entomology, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, 125001
⁴Department of Plant Pathology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 141 004
* Corresponding Author : roomi.rawal78@gmail.com

Received : 06-06-2016     Accepted : 04-07-2016     Published : 18-10-2016
Volume : 8     Issue : 48       Pages : 2033 - 2037
Int J Agr Sci 8.48 (2016):2033-2037

Keywords : Abiotic factors, Bt Cotton, Sucking insect pests, Population dynamics
Academic Editor : Danjumasolomon
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : None declared
Author Contribution : None declared

A field study was done to determine the effect of ecological factors on the incidence of sucking insect pests on seven varieties of genetically /non genetically modified cotton. Sucking insect pests (whitefly, leafhopper, thrips) remained active throughout the crop season with little differences among them. Whitefly was active from 24th to 41st standard meteorological weeks (SMW i.e. June to October, 2014) while leafhopper from 25th to 41st and thrips from 25th to 40th (SMW). Whitefly and leafhoppers population were negatively correlated with maximum temperature, minimum temperature, average wind speed and rainfall and positively correlated with RHm, RHe and sunshine hours. While thrips population showed positive correlation with temperature and negative with sunshine hours. There was no significant difference among sucking insect pests among the Bt and non Bt cotton genotypes.