Amogha, Usha, V.K. Mishra and M. Soniya Devi
Abstract
Helicoverpa armigera is major insect pest of chickpea which occurs during vegetative growth stage that continues to feed up to pod formation stage and responsible for drastic loss in the yield of chickpea. The optimum time to eliminate this pest is while it is in the early stages of its life cycle. This is conceivable if the pests come up can be predicted in advance. The best time to get rid of this pest is when it is still in early stages of its life cycle. If the appearance of pests can be anticipated in advance, this is plausible. In order to achieve this objective, an attempt was made to correlate the seasonal occurrence of pod borer, H. armigera, infesting chickpea with several meteorological variables. A study entitled population dynamics of gram pod borer Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) on chickpea was carried out at agricultural research farm of Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University, Jhansi during rabi season 2021-22. The first appearance of larval population of H. armigera was recorded during 7th standard meteorological week and reached its peak during 11th standard meteorological week while larval population started to decline during 13th standard meteorological week onwards. A positive correlation existed between the larval population density and maximum and minimum temperature. However, significant negative correlation showed between the larval population and morning relative humidity and evening relative humidity.