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Studies on monitoring and screening of introduced plant material for pest and disease incidence, pollinator diversity, ecology and economic importance in horticultural germplasm

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11.2.4

Objective: 
  • To screen the germplasm introduced from wild and secondary sources for pest and     disease incidence.
  • To document the species diversity, abundance and foraging behavior of insect pollinators in relation to genotype variability in different fruit crops.
  • To evaluate the impact of pollinators on fruit set, retention, yield and quality parameters and optimize the requirement.
  • To study the impact of plant protection chemicals on pollinators

 

Date of start of this programme:  2009

PI: 

K. Shivaramu (Ag.Ento)

CO PI: 

P.V.R. Reddy (Ag.Ento)

P. E. Rajasekharan (Eco.Bot)

M. R. Dinesh (Hort)

C. Vasugi (Hort)

A. K. Saxena (Pl.Path)

 

Achievements: 
  • Studies on insect pest incidence on seven species of RET medicinal plants indicated that  Ash weevil (Mylloceros sp) was the serious pest causing defoliation ranging from 15 – 40% during August- October months  on Celastrus paniculatus and Embelia tsjeriamcottam. Adult weevil population ranged from 2-4/shoot. Hairy caterpillar (Euproctis fraterna) was another defoliator found on C. paniculatus.
  • Four species viz., Apis florae, A. cerana, Chrysomya megacephala, Eristalinus arvorum were established as major pollinators of mango under Bangalore conditions.
  • Twenty eight species of insect foragers were recorded during off-season. They mainly belonged to four orders viz., Hymenoptera (Apidae, Megachilidae, Scoliidae), Lepidoptera (Nymphalidae, Lycaenidae), Diptera (Syrphidae, Caliphoridae, Rhiniidae) and Coleoptera (Scarabeidae). Nine species of weed flora were found to support these pollinators during off-season.
  • Foraging behavior of two bee species viz., Apis cerana and A. florea and two dipterans viz., Chrysomya megacephala and Eristalinus arvorum was studied on Alphonso and Banganapalli.
  • There was a  reduction of fruit set in bagged flowers ranged from 68 to 90% in different varieties confirming the role played by pollinators in fruit set..
  • Impact of four insecticides viz., Acephate, Carbaryl, Deltamethrin, Imidacloprid and Lamda Cyhalothrin on bees and other pollinators was studied. All the insecticides resulted in 80-90% reduction of pollinators activity within two hours of spraying.           
  • Apis cerana, A. florea and A. dorsata were the active pollinators on guava.
  • Pollinator diversity was studied in relation to varietal differences. Influence of floral morphological characters on pollinator density was studied. Panicle colour seems to influence pollinator preference in mango.
  • A protocol for mass multiplication of Chrysomya megacephala was standardized.

 

Publications:

  1. Shivaramu.K.,Sakthivel,T.and Reddy,P.V.R.,2012 Diversity and forage dynamics of inset pollinators on Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum.L.) Pest management in Horticultural Ecosystem, 18(2):158-160
  2. Shivaramu.K.and Karunakaran,G. 2012. Preliminary observation of Insect pollinators, diversity and activity on Macadamia nut (Macadamia integri folia) (Maiden & Betche) in Kodagu.  Pest management in Horticultural Ecosystems, 18(2): 223
  3. Reddy, P. V. R., Verghese, A. and Varun Rajan, V. 2012. Potential impact of climate change on honeybees (Apis spp.) and their pollination services. Pest Management in Horticultural Ecosystems, 18 (2) : 121-127
  4. Reddy, P.V.R., Patil, P. and Paripurna, K.A. 2010. Screening germplasm of pummelo (Citrus maxima Merr.) for resistance against citrus leaf minor, Phyllocnistis citrella St. Pest Management in Horticultural Ecosystems, 16 (2): 136-140.

 

 

Division List: 
Division of PGR