Agricultural and Biological Research

Seasonal abundance of the key cluster bean sucking insect pests and their relationship to abiotic variables

Vijay Kumar*

Cluster bean, scientifically identified as Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L.) Taub and colloquially known as guar, plays a vital role as a leguminous crop resilient to drought conditions, typically grown in arid and semi-arid regions.

A study was carried out at Instructional Farm, RNB Global University, Bikaner during the kharif season of 2023 to investigate the seasonal occurrence of major sucking insect pests affecting cluster bean plants and their relationship with abiotic factors. The research suggested that the jassid abundance fluctuated between 0.50 and 10.40 per three leaves, with peak activity recorded at 10.40 during the 38^th standard meteorological week, corresponding to the third week of September. The whitefly population (1.77 whitefly) began during the third week of August commenced on 3^rd WAS coinciding with 3^rd week of August (34^th standard week). After that the pest activity gradually increased up to 8 WAS coinciding with 3^rd week of September (38^th standard week) and reached a peak level (11.57 whitefly). It was observed that there was a positive correlation between the highest and lowest temperatures. The abundance of jassid resulted significant positive correlation (r=0.67) at 5 per cent level and rainfall had negatively correlation (r=-0.31). The population of whitefly was saw that the maximum temperature showed significant positive correlation (r=0.65) at 5 per cent level, the minimum temperature showed significant positive correlation (r=+0.46) at 1 per cent level and relative humidity revealed significantly negative correlation (r=-0.54) at 1 per cent level. The rainfall showed significantly negative correlation (r=-0.30) at 5 per cent level.