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The fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith), is a polyphagous non-native pest identified as a serious threat to crop production and food security globally, including in India. Its unintentional introduction and quick coverage in large areas is a serious concern to millions of farmers in the eastern Himalayan region. However, detailed understanding of farmers’ perceptions and the biological attributes associated with the meteorological factors for FAW is limited. The present investigation, which aimed to create baseline data on this pest, concurs with the idea that the FAW is widely dispersed throughout the maize ecosystems of Tripura, with an average infestation rate of 21.33 percent. The severity ranged from 0 to 1.40, with an average leaf damage score of 1 on a 0–4 categorical scale. The findings indicate that pheromone trap catch was significantly correlated with the evaporation rate as other meteorological factors influenced variably. The biological attributes imply that the life cycle was completed in 32.82 ± 0.08 days, with a high fecundity potential (1068.57 ± 4.35 numbers) in controlled conditions (25 ± 1 °C, 70 ± 5% RH). Indigenous natural enemies, such as entomopathogens, spiders, and wasps, were found to be the first defence against this invasive pest. A minority of the population (17.51%) was aware of the incidence of FAW. Furthermore, respondents’ socio-demographic variables were associated significantly with FAW status. This is the first scientific report from the eastern Himalayan region about farmers’ knowledge and awareness of the invasiveness of FAW. This finding enumerates a detailed understanding of FAW from diverse perspectives. Further, the concerted data provide an important baseline that could help the development of holistic management strategies for FAW.

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Ustilaginoidea virens is the fungal pathogen causing an emerging false smut disease which affects crop yield as well as deteriorates quality of the grains by producing mycotoxins. High quality genome of U. virens isolate UV2_4G was sequenced using Nanopore and Illumina HiSeq 2000 sequencing platforms. The total assembled genome of Indian isolate UV2_4G was 35.9 Mb, which comprised of 89 scaffolds with N50 700296 bp. A total of 358697 variants were identified in the genome, out of which 355173 were SNPs and 3524 were INDELS. Further, 7390 SSRs belonging to different repeat type were also identified in the genome. Out of 7444 proteins predicted, 7206 were functionally annotated. A total of 1307 CAZymes, 501 signal peptides, 1876 effectors and 2709 genes involved in host-pathogen interactions were identified. Comparative analysis revealed isolate UV2_4G is distinct with 31 unique clusters and placed distantly in phylogenetic analysis. Taken together, this high-quality genome assembly and sequence annotation resource can give an improved insight for characterizing the biological and pathogenic mechanisms of Ustilaginoidea virens.