Antixenotic mechanism of resistance in different chickpea genotypes against gram pod borer (Helicoverpa armigera Hubner)

In this field-laboratory experiment, eight different genotypes of chickpea were evaluated to assess resistance mechanism against Helicoverpa armigera Hubn. considering some important morphological characters of the crop viz., total number of pod per plant, leaf thickness, pod wall thickness, pod width, pod length, plant height, total number of primary branches, trichome density on leaves (both non-glandular and glandular) as well as trichome density on pods. The results revealed a significant positive correlation between pest incidence and number of primary branches per plant while, significant and negative correlation with glandular trichome density of leaves. Genotypes having higher pod trichome density and pod length resulted less pod damage as these two characters were significantly and negatively correlated with pod damage. However, among all the evaluated morphological characters, glandular trichome density of leaf and pod trichome density were the major influencing factors over the pest population and pod damage, respectively.