Influence of intercrops on population dynamics of natural enemies of groundnut pests Girija T., Hegde Mahabaleshwar*, Gadad Hanamant S. Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, Dharawad-580 005, Karnataka, India *E-mail: mghdwr07@gmail.com
Online published on 30 November, 2019. Abstract Groundnut was intercropped with foxtail millet, pearl millet, sorghum, cowpea, lucerne, sunflower and chilli in 3:1 (groundnut: intercrop) proportion to find out suitable cropping system against insect pest of groundnut. The population of coccinellids reached its peak at 60 days after sowing (DAS) and ranged from 1.93 to 4.67 per plant. Similarly, spider population was highest at 75 DAS. The population of coccinellids and spiders were highest on groundnut + foxtail millet intercropping, followed by groundnut + pearl millet, groundnut + sorghum and groundnut + sunflower. Per cent parasitisation by different parasitoids (Apanatles sp. & Campoletis chlorideae) was maximum (22.33%) and natural incidence of Nomuraea rileyi was highest on Spodoptera litura (14.05%) at 60 DAS. The per cent parasitisation was highest in groundnut + lucerne intercropping, followed by groundnut + foxtail millet, groundnut + pearl millet, groundnut + sorghum and groundnut + sunflower. Top Keywords Groundnut, intercropping, cocinellids, spiders, Nomuraea rileyi. Top |