Influence of Abiotic Factors on Population Dynamics of Sucking Insect Pests in Transgenic Cotton

A field experiment was conducted to investigate the impact of abiotic factors on population dynamics of sucking insect pests in transgenic cotton cv. RCH138 Bt viz., aphid (Aphis gossypii Glover), jassid (Amrasca biguttula biguttula Ishida), whitefly (Bemisia tabaci Gennadius), thrips (Thrips tabaci Lindeman) and mealybug (Phenaccocus solenopsis Tinsley) under unprotected condition. The results of the field study revealed that the sucking pest population was found throughout the year from first fortnight of August to end of January. The peak population of aphid, jassid, whitefly, thrips and mealybug were 4.38, 4.39, 3.98, 1.53 and 4 grade infestation in 50^th, 37^th, 46^th, 40^th and 41^st-42^nd standard week, respectively. Correlation analysis with the weather parameters viz., temperature, relative humidity, wind velocity, sunshine hours and rainfall revealed that maximum temperature showed significant positive effect on all the sucking insect pests. The minimum temperature showed negative effect on aphid population and non significant effect on whitefly and thrips population. The relative humidity has non-significant effect, whereas precipitation has negative effect on all the sucking pests.