Incidence of Mirid Bug Species Complex in BT and Non-BT Cotton Genotypes

The present study on the incidence of mirid bugs in relation to weather factors in Bt and non Bt cotton hybrids was carried out at the KVK, Haradanahalli, Chamarajanagar. During the study three species of mirid bugs viz., Creontiades biseratense (Distant), Helopeltis theivora (Waterhouse) and Taylorilygus apicalis (Fiber) were observed, of which C. biseratense was the dominant. Maximum incidence of C. biseratense (6.56/ 10 squares/ plant), Helopeltis theivora (3.60/ 10 squares/ plant) and Taylorilygus apicalis (2.40/ 10 squares/ plant) was observed at 42^nd, 45^th, 43^rd standard meteorological weeks. Correlation coefficients revealed that maximum temperature has a significant negative association with incidence. However, nonsignificant negative association was exhibited by evening relative humidity (RH) and rainfall. In contrast to this, significant positive association was observed with morning RH, a non-significant positive one with minimum temperature.