04 Haz 2025 Çarşamba
Predators and parasitoids of aphids (Homoptera: Aphididae) infesting brinjal (Solanum melongena l.) crop in India
Abstract : The present article enlists the predators and parasitoids of the aphids (Aphididae: Hemiptera) infesting brinjal crops and their distribution in different states and union territories of India. Most of them are found to prey/parasitise Aphis craccivora Koch, Aphis gossypii Glover and Myzus persicae (Sulzer). The predators belong to one order of class Arachnida: Araneae (families Araneidae, Lycosidae, Oxyopidae, Theridiidae) and four orders of the class Insecta: Coleoptera (families Coccinellidae, Staphylinidae), Diptera (families Cecidomyiidae, Syrphidae), Hemiptera (families Anthocoridae, Geocoridae) and Neuroptera (families Chrysopidae, Hemerobiidae). A total of 112 species of predators from various taxa were recorded to feed 11 species of the brinjal aphids distributed in 20 states/union territories of India. The highest number of predators belonged to the families Coccinellidae (71 species) and Syrphidae (15 species). Most of the tritrophic associations (triplets, predators-preys-host plants) of these predators were reported in West Bengal (127 triplets), Uttar Pradesh (72 triplets), Jammu & Kashmir (24 triplets), Manipur (21 triplets) and other states/union territories less than 20 triplets. All the parasitoids of brinjal aphids belong to two subfamilies Aphelininae (Aphelinidae: Hymenoptera) and Aphidiinae (Braconidae: Hymenoptera) in India. A total of 22 species of parasitoids were observed parasitising these brinjal aphids infesting in 10 states/union territory of India. Most of the tritrophic associations (triplets) of these parasitoids were reported from Manipur (11 triplets) followed by Uttar Pradesh (9 triplets), Bihar (8 triplets) and others less than 5 triplets. Indeed, minimal attempts have been made to record the natural enemies of the brinjal aphids in India, and an intensive and extensive survey plan is warranted to record them in unexplored areas.