Insect pest complex of brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) and their associated natural enemies across North-Kashmir India

In a field survey eight insect pest species were observed throughout the crop cycle from seedling to the harvesting stage. Four species viz., Leucinodes orbonalis (Guenee), Aphis gossypii (Glover), Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata (Fabricius) and Macrosiphum euphorbiae (Thomas) were found to be major pests whereas Altica himensis (Shukla), Myzus persicae (Sulzer), Amrasca biguttula biguttula (Ishida) and Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) were recorded as minor pests. The brinjal shoot and fruit borer emerged as the most prominent pest among all these. Among natural enemies four species viz., Coccinella septempunctata, Harmonia dimidiata, Coccinella transversalis, Hippodamia variegata of Coccinellid predators and one species of Chrysopidae were recorded.