The impact of vegetational diversity through intercrop and the application of antifeedants were assessed for their ability to reduce the infestation of shoot and fruit borer Leucinodes orbonalis Guen. on eggplant. Intercropping with coriander and fennel reduced the fruit damage to 12–15% compared with the plots with eggplant monoculture. Total yield of intercropped eggplant was significantly higher than the eggplant monoculture yield. Coriander and fennel were found to be equally effective in reducing infestation by L. orbonalis. Neem seed kernel extract (4%) and the neem-based product Neemarin® were found to be more effective in controlling L. orbonalis than ash dust and were lower than the untreated control. The fruit infestation level in the neem treatments (either of them) was 15–16% less than the untreated check. The interaction of intercrop and antifeedant showed that coriander-intercropped eggplant along with foliar spray of Neemarin® significantly reduced fruit damage. In a multiple choice chamber, orientation of female moths to eggplant was significantly reduced in the presence of fennel or coriander. With 38.9 and 37.1 per female, the extent of egg-laying by L. orbonalis on eggplant associated with fennel or coriander, respectively, was significantly less than on sole eggplant (48.4/female).

Role of Abiotic Factors on Seasonal Abundance and Infestation of Fruit Fly, Bactrocera Cucurbitae (COQ.) on Bitter Gourd: Throughout the year, there was an abundance of fruit flies in Cue-lure baited traps. Two peaks; in summer and kharif (Autumn) coincided with the 14 SW and 43 SW respectively. In kharif, maximum bitter gourd fruit damage (62.70%) occurred in the 45 SW. A second peak, with 49.70% fruit damage was observed during the 15 SW period. The temperature (maximum and minimum) showed a significant positive correlation with adult abundance, fruit damage and pupal population. The temperature recorded during the preceding first, second and third weeks had a slightly greater impact than the temperature of the current week in which the fruit fly abundance had been checked. Other abiotic factors had a non-significant effect on fruit fly adult activity, fruit damage and pupal population.

Ramie (Boehmeria nivea) is a perennial herbaceous plant which produces strong and lustrous bast fibre. It is native to East Asia and is mainly grown in china, India, Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand, Brazil, and South Korea (Sarkar et al. 2012). In May 2013, ramie plants exhibiting yellow mosaic symptoms were noted in experimental fields of the CRIJAF research farm, Barrackpore, India. In young green leaves vein-clearing was prominent, whereas the older leaves showed complete yellowing. Plants were stunted and bushy. The incidence of the disease varied from 2% to 10 %. Five symptomatic and five asymptomatic samples were collected from the field and DNA was extracted by using CTAB method (Biswas et al. 2013). DNA samples were tested for begomovirus infection by PCR using universal primer pair PAL1v1978B/PAR1c715H (Rojas et al. 1993). Only the symptomatic samples showed amplification of a 1.5 kb product suggesting that plants were infected by a begomovirus. Furthermore, circular DNA was amplified by rolling circle amplification (RCA) with Illustra TempliPhi Kit (GE Healthcare, UK) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. RCA product was digested with EcoRI, BamHI, EcoRI, KpnI, Hind III and PstI (New England Biolabs) respectively. The fragments of 2.1 kbp (with BamHI digestion) and 1.5 kbp (with KpnI digestion) were cloned and sequenced. The sequence of the 2.1 kbp fragment showed similarity with published sequences of begomovirus DNA-A component. From 2.1 kbp sequence a pair of primers was designed to obtain full length DNA -A component viz. JAF1 (5′-CTTCATCGTTTCTCAGCATCAT-3′) and JAR1 (5′-CACTTGCACACGATCTCTAAGA-3′). The full-length DNA-A was 2686 bp nucleotides and encoded six putative ORFs (GenBank Accession No. KF962542). The sequence of the 1.5 kbp fragment shared similarity with DNA-B. The begomoviral circular DNA-B was amplified using the pair of primers JBF1 (5′-GTAACACCCGAAGTGCACG-3′) and JBR1 (5′-AAAGGAGAGACACCAGTCTGCC-3′) designed from the 1.5-kbp sequence. PCR yielded full-length DNA-B sequence of 2666 bp nucleotides and encoded two putative ORFs (GenBank Accession No. KF962543). BLASTn analysis revealed that DNA-A from the ramie begomovirus isolate has 100% nucleotide sequence identity with complete sequence of DNA-A component of Corchorus golden mosaic virus (Accession no: FJ463902). Similarly, DNA-B also has 100% identity with complete sequence of CoGMV DNA-B component (Accession no: FJ455448). Based on BLASTn analysis and sequence analysis using MEGALIGN (DNASTAR), the virus causing symptoms in ramie appears to be CoGMV which is a New World begomovirus from the Old World infecting jute (Corchorus capsularis) (Ha et al. 2006). To the best of our knowledge this is the first report that CoGMV infects ramie plants. The incidence of CoGMV in ramie is relatively low but in future it may negatively affect the yield. References: Biswas, C. et al., 2013. Lett. Appl. Microbiol. 56:105. Ha, C. et al., 2006. J.Gen. Virol. 87:997. Rojas, M R. et al., 1993. Plant Dis. 77:340. Sarkar, D. et al., 2012. Curr. Sci. 98:1570.

Laboratory and glass house experiments were conducted to study the effect of preventive seed treatment of kenaf (Cv. HC-583) with neonicotinoid insecticides i.e., thiamethoxam, imidacloprid and clothianidin on seed germination and seedling parameters as well as the toxicity and bio-efficacy against mealybug and flea beetle. The insecticides used showed no adverse effect on germination and seedling growth rather improved these parameters. The systemic toxic effect of the insecticides persisted in the treated plants with reduced infestation and damage of mealybug till 75 DAS. At this stage, the infestation (38.40%) and damage grade (0.49) in thiamethoxam was significantly less than all other treatments and control. In case of flea beetle, although initial toxicity was more in case of clothianidin and imidacloprid but persistent toxicity of thiamethoxam showed greater mortality of the flea beetles till 60 DAS.

Aim: To enumerate resistance in Kenaf (fibre crop) genotypes with distinct host suitability, biological performance and growth parameters of mealybug, Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley. Methodology: Laboratory and glasshouse experiments were conducted to assess the host suitability and resistance of genotypes on the basis of relative colonization, growth and survival in terms of establishment rate and nymphal duration of mealybug. Results: The wild accession, WHIJ 50 belonging to Hibiscus spp. and the variety JRM 3 of H. cannabinus recorded significantly lowest female establishment rate, instantaneous population increase, nymphal survival and growth index with longer nymphal duration possessing possible antixenosis-and antibiosis-mediated resistance. On the other extreme the susceptible genotype, WHIN 47 (H. acetocella) proved favourable for crawler developmental parameters. Interpretation: The level, mechanism and basis of resistance in kenaf enumerated from this study may pave the way for creating vigorous kenaf hybrids resistant to cotton mealybug.