Seasonal Incidence of Tomato Fruit Borer, Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) and Its Correlation with Abiotic Factors: An Experimental Investigation
Sneh Yadav *
Department of Entomology, Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur-208002, Uttar Pradesh, India.
R. K. Pal
Department of Entomology, Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur-208002, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Ajay Kumar Yadav
Department of Vegetable Science, Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur-208002, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Ankit Singh Yadav
Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, J.S. University, Shikohabad, Firozabad-283135, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Gurwaan Singh
Department of Agronomy, Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur-208002, Uttar Pradesh, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
A study on seasonal incidence of the tomato fruit borer, Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) on tomato was conducted under field conditions at Vegetable Research Station, CSAUA&T, Kanpur during Rabi season 2021-2022. The incidence of fruit borer commenced in the 47th standard week (third week of November) with an average population of 0.2 larvae per m row length. The fruit borer population increased and gradually reached its peak level of 7.8 larvae per m row length in the 3rd standard week (January third week), after that, a declining trend was observed. As regards abiotic factors, rainfall (r=0.4727), maximum relative humidity (r=0.3306), minimum relative humidity (r=0.7544) and wind speed (r=0.6039) had a significant positive correlation with the fruit borer population. Maximum temperature (r=-0.7616) and minimum temperature (r=-0.6327) are negatively correlated with the fruit borer population.
Keywords: Helicoverpa armigera, incidence, population, rainfall, temperature, tomato