Vol. 11, Special Issue 4 (2022)

Author(s):
Zeel Pansara, Patel JJ and Priyanka Gami

Abstract:
The investigations on “Population dynamics of red and black pumpkin beetle, Aulacophora foveicollis Lucas on cucumber, Cucumis sativus Linneaus” was carried out at College Farm, College of Agriculture, Navsari Agricultural University, Bharuch (Gujarat) during summer, 2020. The population of red pumpkin beetle, A. foveicollis on cucumber initiated from 3^rd week of March (11^th SMW, 4^th WAS) and persisted till 4^th week of May (21^th SMW, 14^th WAS) in the range of 0.13 to 3.30 beetles/plant with an average of 1.49 beetle/plant. The population reached to the first (2.53 beetles/plant) and second as well as the highest (3.30 beetles/plant) peak during 2^nd week of April (15^th SMW, 8^th WAS) and 1^st week of May (18^th SMW, 11^th WAS), respectively. The correlation studies revealed that bright sunshine hours (r= 0.64906*) and evapotranspiration rate (r= 0.66310*) significantly positively correlated while, maximum temperature (r= 0.72768**) and wind speed (r= 0.79715**) showed highly significant and positively associated with the activity of red pumpkin beetle. The other weather parameters had non-significant association with red pumpkin beetle population.