Seasonal incidence of banana scarring beetle in organic banana in Bihar Sah Shyam Babu, Gupta R.N.1, Kumar Santosh1, Saha Tamoghna, Singh B.B. Department of Entomology, Bihar Agriculture University, Sabour, Bhagalpur - 813 210 (Bihar), India 1Department of Plant pathology, Bihar Agriculture University, Sabour, Bhagalpur - 813 210 (Bihar), India *<rameshnathgupta@gmail.com>
Online published on 18 May, 2022. Abstract Organic banana has great assurance for human health, economics, and sustainable development in the field of horticulture. The scarring beetle (Basilepta sp.) infesting organic banana is an emerging threat to sustainable cultivation in Bihar. Scanty information is available about the incidence of this pest hence, a field experiment was carried out at Bhola Paswan Shastri Agricultural College, Purnea, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, for two years in a row, from 2019–20 to 2020–21, to determine the seasonal incidence of banana scarring beetle During the year 2019–20, two-peak population of beetles was recorded, first in early July with 38.76 beetles per plant and the second peak in the second fortnight of September with 50.61 beetles per plant. Among two peaks, the first peak showed the highest scars in early July with 44.31 scars/20 cm2 area of banana, while the second peak was observed in the second fortnight of September having 57.58 scars/20 cm2 area of banana. During year 2020–21, two peaks of scarring beetle population were also recorded, first in the late July with 45.28 beetles per plant, and the second peak population showed 68.7 beetles per plant during the second fortnight of September. During first and second peak periods of infestation 47.28 and 68.81 scars/20 cm2 area of banana were recorded, respectively. Regarding the adult population of beetles, it was found maximum in the second fortnight of September due to favourable weather conditions for scarring beetle. However, it was observed minimum in second fortnight of December due to extreme cold conditions. During 2019–20, the fortnightly average beetle population and scars produced showed positive correlation with various weather parameters except relative humidity. However, in the years 2020–21, the beetle population and scars produced were positively correlated with various weather parameters, except relative humidity in the morning and evening. Top Keywords Scarring beetle, Seasonal incidence, Infestation, Weather parameter, Scars, Organic banana. Top |