Influence of biochemical parameters in the plants treated with PGRs on sucking insect pests population in Bt cotton

The present experiment was conducted to study the effect of growth regulators, jasmonic and salicylic acid on the population of cotton leaf hopper, Amrasca biguttula bigutulla (Ishida), cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii (Glover) and cotton thrips, Thrips tabaci (Lindeman) in Bt cotton under glasshouse and field conditions. The results indicated that there was decrease in the population of these pests in the plants pretreated with JA and SA solution under glasshouse and field conditions indicating that these growth regulators had a negative effect on these sucking pests population. Further, the correlation studies revealed that the population of leafhoppers, aphids and thrips were negatively correlated with total sugars, phenols and tannin content in the leaves of treated plants, but positive correlation was observed between pest population and reducing sugars in leaves.