1Department of Agricultural Entomology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, 641003, Tamil Nadu, India
2Department of Plant Pathology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, 641003, Tamil Nadu, India
*Email: pdpriyatharsini18@gmail.com (corresponding author): Orcid Id 0000-0003-2701-1933
Online published on 8 August, 2025.
The survival of lifestages viz., larval, pupal and adult of the cotton stem weevil Pempherulus affinis Faust was studied under different stacking conditions viz., cotton stalk heaped, sun drying of cotton stalks, sprinkling of water once in every five days, and cotton stalks in submerged condition. The treatment of sun drying of cotton stalks (T3) revealed the least survival of larva, pupa and adult at 10, 20, 30 and 40 days after stacking (DAS); it was 37.62, 28.43, 26.92 and 19.97%, respectively. Maximum survival of 73.07, 65.70, 58.38 and 49.22% was obtained with sprinkling of water once every five days (T2) at 10, 20, 30 and 40 DAS, respectively. Thus, sun drying of cotton stems after harvest has been observed to arrest the carryover of the pest to the succeeding crop.
Pempherulus affinis, Lifestages, Survival, Stacking condition, Sun drying, Sprinkling of water, Heaped, Submerged conditions, Larva, Pupa, Adult, Cotton stalks, Carryover
