Study on evaluation of different insecticides against leaf eating caterpillar (Thalossades dissita Walker) on mango and cashew.

Accepted : April, 2010 Mango (Mangifera indica L.) belonging to family Anacardiaceae universally considered as the most delicious tropical fruit of the world and has been called ‘King of fruits’. It is also a ‘National fruit of India’. Mango is grown in atleast 111 countries spread over five continents. India ranks first in world with total production of 10.8 million metric tons from about 1.6 million hectare area, which is nearly fourty three per cent, the total world area under mango (FAO, 2006). The cashew nut (Anacardium occidentale L.) is a native of south eastern Brazil belongs to the family Anacardiaceae. It was introduced in sixteenth century by the Portuguese on west coast of India mainly to check the soil erosion (Murthy and Ramadevi, 1985). Several pests have been reported on these crops affecting the productivity greatly. Mango alone has been reported to be infested by 551 pests in the different parts of the world which includes 492 species of insects, 17 species of mites, 26 species of nematodes,9 species of birds and 7 species of mammals (Tandon and Verghese,1985) whereas, cashew crop has been reported to be infested by 180 pests in India including insects,mites and vertebrates (Sundararaju and Bhaktavathsalam, 1990). Among the several leaf eating caterpillars feeding on these crops. The Thalassodes dissita Walker is very common on both the