Mustard aphid and coccinellid interaction: Unveiling population dynamics with PCA analysis

The aphid population peaked during the second week of February at the siliqua development stage of the crop. The results showed that with an increase in aphid population, there was a relatively small rise in coccinellid beetle population, which followed the density dependent trend. The correlation analysis of aphid population and weather parameters discovered that overall lowest temperatures and rainfall were amongst the climatic variables that had a detrimental impact on the aphid and coccinellid densities. The regression analysis found that the most significant variables on the prevalence of aphid populations were rainfall and relative humidity.