Legume Research - An International Journal

Legume pod borer, Maruca vitrata (Geyer) is one of the major constraints in increasing the production and productivity of grain legumes in the tropics. Keeping in view of the importance of this pest, present studies were carried out with the association of different morpho-chemical traits with resistance/susceptibility to M. vitrata at the Pulses Research Station, SDAU, S.K. Nagar. Some of the characters like flower colour, pod angle, protein, flavonoid, tannin and phenols were found to be associated with M. vitrata attack on cowpea genotypes. The pod damage by M. vitrata on different cowpea genotypes in the field ranged from 10.22 to 19.98%. High phenol content in pods (428.63mg/100g) and (326.33mg/100g) found responsible for the resistance of GC 5 and GC 0815, respectively and high flavonoid concentration in pods (484.08mg/100g) and (458.81mg/100g) in GC 5 and GC 0815 respectively were responsible for resistance. Based on these results, GC 5 and GC 0815 were categorized as moderately resistant. This paper discusses the physico-chemical traits associated with resistance to M. vitrata in cowpea variety/genotypes.