The insect-pests infestation in cucumber leads to severe injury to its’ vegetative parts and fruits by epilachna beetle, red pumpkin beetle, whitefly, pumpkin caterpillar, leaf minerand fruit fly. The present investigation was taken upduring 2014 and 2015 to study the population dynamics of prevailing six insect-pests of cucumber and its natural enemies inrelation to weather parameters.The correlation studies between insect pests and weather parameters revealed that the melon fruit fly (Bactrocera cucurbitae Coquillett), epilachna beetle (Epilachna vigintioctopunctata Fabricius), red pumpkin beetle (Aulacophora foveicollisLucas), whitefly (Bemisia tabaci Gennadius), pumpkin caterpillar (Diaphania indica Saunders) and leaf miner (Liriomyza trifolii Burgess) showed significant positive correlation with maximum and minimum temperature,whereas negative and nonsignificant correlation with relative humidity and rainfall. The natural enemies such ascoccinellids and spiders showed significant positive correlation with maximum and minimum temperature, and non significant negative correlation with relative humidity and rainfall. Sunshine hour showed positive correlation with all the insect pests and natural enemies except epilachna beetle.
Red sanders (Pterocarpus santalinus L.f.) is an economically important, endangered timber species endemic to the restricted forest tracts of the Eastern Ghats, India. Here, we report the occurrence of long horned beetle Xylotrechus smei infestation on red sanders for the first time from Telangana, India. Infestation was characterized by complete drying of standing trees, presence of galleries and bore holes in cut stems. In addition, supplementary description of X. smei, including the terminal abdominal segments and genitalia of both the sexes, immatures and its illustrations are provided for more authentic identification of this important pest. Further, the identity of the insect as X. smei was confirmed through mtCOI based DNA barcode. Phylogenetic and sequence divergence analyses based on partial mtCOI gene sequence showed that X. smei isolate obtained in the current study was closely related to X. smei isolate WA13 10.01r that was intercepted in wood packaging material in one of the ports of entry of United States (U.S.).
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