Population Dynamics of Sucking Pest Complex on Some Advanced Genotypes of Cotton under Unsprayed Conditions

A B S T R A C T Sucking pests (insects and mites) deteriorate significantly cotton crop both in terms of quantity and quality. Screening plant material under prevailing agro-climatic conditions is an essential element of integrated pest management. The present study aimed at evaluating eight genotypes of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) under agro-climatic conditions of Faisalabad region against sucking pest complex (whitefly, jassid, thrip and red-spider mite). Secondary objective was to assess the influence of weather factors (temperature, relative humidity, and rainfall) on population dynamics of major sucking insect/mite pests on some advanced cotton genotypes (viz. NIBGE-, IR-443, IR-448, NK, FH-901, FH-925, NIAB-999 and NIAB-98). Data of these insect/mite pests were taken on per leaf basis under unsprayed conditions and were subjected to statistical analysis which showed that mean population incidence on all genotypes was significant for all the four sucking insect/mite pests. Among genotypes, NIAB-98 was least attractive to whitefly infestation while both IR-genotypes were relatively less attractive to mite infestation. Similarly, both NIAB-genotypes were found most attractive to cotton jassid and NK genotype was less attractive to thrips infestation as compared to other genotypes. Moreover, the influence of all three weather factors was not significant on overall trend of sucking insect/mite pests.