Occurrence of Lac Insect and its Host Plants in Madhya Pradesh

Lac insect occurrence was observed in 302 locations, and samples of 267 populations belonging to Rangeeni and 35 from Kusmi strains were collected. A total of 17 host plants belonging to 7 genera were observed with live lac encrustation. Maximum frequency of occurrence was seen on Palas in 133 sites (44.03%) followed by Pipal in 97 sites (32.11%), Kusum- 35 sites (11.60%), Ber- 15 sites (4.97%) and other 13 lac hosts in 22 sites. Maximum lac insect occurrence in terms of sites were reported from Seoni (49- 16.2%), followed by Mandla (42- 13.9%), Balaghat (39- 12.9%), Hoshangabad (13- 4.3%), Chhindwara (10- 3.31%) and other 41 districts of Madhya Pradesh (149 sites). During the study, 2 colour variants were observedthese are crimson (236 sites) and yellow (62 sites0 and crimson-yellow (mixed- 4 sites). The study listed 167 lac cultivation sites, of which the maximum cultivated sites were from Seoni district (49 sites- 29.30%) followed by Balaghat (39 sites- 23.40%), Mandla (30 sites-18.00%), Hoshangabad (9- 5.39%) and other ten districts (40 sites). In natural condition total 135 lac insect occurrence sites were observed and of these maximums were observed in Rajgarh, Morena, Shivpuri (each in 8 sites- 5.93%) followed by Sagar, Indore, Mandsaur, Agar Malwa each (6 sites- 4.44%) and other 87 sites in 32 other districts.