A new species, Pristaciura hancocki Maneesh & Prabhakar, sp. nov., is described from Himachal Pradesh, India, along with an identification key to species in the genus Pristaciura Hendel. Additionally, Procecidochares utilis Stone is newly recorded from the high-altitude regions of Himachal Pradesh.

Tephritid fruit flies are the serious insect pest of fruits, vegetables and flower crops. Various control strategies have been used for the control of fruit fly. Wolbachia is a group of obligatory, intracellular and maternally- inherited bacteria widely present in insects and has significance as an incompatible insect technique for pest control. In the present study, the wild populations of Bactrocera and Zeugodacus sp. were collected from 13 locations in India by using pheromone traps. Total genomic DNA of individual male fruit fly samples was extracted and Wolbachia prevalence was assessed through Wolbachia specific 16S rRNA gene analysis. The variable Wolbachia infection rates were observed in six different species of tephritid fruit fly samples obtained from different regions. The average Wolbachia infection was 62.9% (Zeugodacus tau), 57.1% (Bac- trocera dorsalis), 52.07% (Zeugodacus cucurbitae) followed by 47.8% and 8.5% in Bactrocera correcta and Bactrocera zonata populations respectively. While, no infection was observed in Zeugodacus caudatus. Phylogenetic analysis revealed supergroup-A of Wolbachia is present in wild Bactrocera and Zeugodacus sp. The prevalence of Wolbachia and identifying strains in fruit fly species could facilitate in designing suitable pest management strategies.

A new species of genus Oedaspis Loew, Oedaspis nauniensis Maneesh & Hancock, sp. nov., is described from Himachal Pradesh, India and Oedaspis Loew, Acidiostigma bomiense Wang and Goniurellia lacerata (Becker) are newly recorded from India. Keys to Asian species of Oedaspis and Indian species of Acidiostigma Hendel and Goniurellia Hendel are included.

This study showed that brinjal, Solanum melongena Linnaeus is the first global host of the fruit fly, Bactrocera penecorrecta Drew (Diptera: Tephritidae) from Bihar, North India. Earlier report of B. penecorrecta was from Kerala, South India. In the present investigation, B. penecorrecta was recorded 22 years after its discovery in Kerala, South India in 2002 by R. A. I. Drew and S. Raghu. The record of brinjal as the first host of B. penecorrecta warrants in in-depth investigation of the level of infestation and sanitary and phytosanitary protocol development for the export as many recent invasions by different Bactrocera species in various part of the world beyond their native distributional records.

The green stink bug Nezara viridula (Linnaeus) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) is an economic insect pest of many cultivated plants around the world.Recently, high population of green stink bug were observedin maize crop during March–May 2020 in Bihar, a leading state of maize production in India. The population changes, damage symptoms, morpho-variants of N. viridula on maize were studied during 2020 and 2021 and presented in this report. For this study, 1 m2 area were randomly selected at three places in the maize field grown at Dumraon, Bihar to record the population of N. viridula at weekly during crop period in the year 2020 and 2021. Also number of maximum adults per plants and per cobs were recorded. The adults of N. viridula were first recorded in maize field during third week of March 2020 and in the same period of year 2021. The mean maximum adults’ population of N. viridula was 43adults/ m2and 34.33 adults/ m2 observed during April 2020 and 202, respectively onmaize crop. The high population densities of the pest may be due to the migration of bugs from other field crops and native vegetation to the cultivated maize crop. During the course of the investigation, maximum 18 adult bugs per plant and 13 adult bugs per corn were recorded during fourth week of April 2020, whereas, maximum 12 adults per plant and 8 adults per cob were recorded during April 2021.The bugs were damage standing maize plants and corn by sucking saps and hindering the growth of plants, cobs as well as the developing kernels. Considering the high population densities, regular appearance of the pest and damage caused to maize crop in the state created an alarming situation for thepest management researchers of the country to develop suitable integrated pest management strategies for the management of N. viridula on maize in the near future.

A new species of Bactrocera Macquart, Bactrocera (Bactrocera) divenderi Maneesh, Hancock and Prabhakar, sp. n., is described from Himachal Pradesh, Northern India and also recorded from Bhutan and northern Pakistan. It belongs to the B. (B.) nigrotibialis complex and a key to the complex is provided. Dacus (Mellesis) fletcheri Drew is newly recorded from India and records of B. (B.) invadens Drew, Tsuruta White from the Himalayan region are discussed.

Agriculture is the main stay of India as it contributes significantly to the economy by providing employment to more than half of country's workforce. The major problem faced by farmers during the crop production is the pest and disease attack. Lack of right technical advice at right time leads to improper farm decision leading to economic losses. It is necessary to provide an interface to farmers to identify the pest and disease problem faced during agricultural processes and get a solution to that problem from agricultural experts. We have developed an interface in the form of an Android application to upload the images and a Web interface to display the uploaded images with their disease or pest type. The uploaded images are used to train a CNN model which will help to identify pests and diseases for the crops. This system is currently being developed for four major crops, which are rice, maize, chickpea, and lentil.

Several black to brown colored spots especially on leaf lamina were noticed on the potato crop at an experimental field of Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (India) during 2015. Such symptoms were reported as brown spot of potato caused by Alternaria alternata elsewhere in the world. To understand the extent of such symptoms, a roving survey was carried out during the 2016 cropping season in thirteen districts of Uttar Pradesh and two districts of Bihar and the presence of brown spot symptom across the region with the percent disease index (PDI) ranging from 17.77 to 40.00% was observed. Forty isolates obtained from surveyed locations grouped into four categories viz., non-pathogenic (10), low pathogenic (09), moderately pathogenic (08) and highly pathogenic (13) based on the pathogenicity test. However, morphologies of 30 pathogenic isolates were found to be similar with A . alternata . The identity of those 30 isolates was further confirmed by PCR using A . alternata specific primers. On the other hand, phylogenetic analysis of rDNA sequence of 13 pathogenic isolates from the present study and published sequences of A . alternata and other related fungi retrieved from GenBank, NCBI has confirmed the identity of brown spot of potato from the surveyed location as Alternaria alternata .

Bactrocera dorsalis and Zeugodacus cucurbitae are the most economically important pests of fruits and vegetables production. Male lures like, methyl eugenol (ME) and cue lure (CL) in conjunction with insecticides are commercially used to attract and kill these pests. We investigated, herein, the application of plant essential oils (basil, clove, citronella, and eucalyptus) with ME and CL for both toxicity and attraction. Through the use of rubber foam as a base, basil oil (BO) was found to be highly toxic to B. dorsalis and Z. cucurbitae, and was evaluated for potency with ME and CL as effective attraction mechanisms. Our results found 15.7-20.3 % of attraction for B. dorsalis using ME, separately or mixed with basil oil. The separate CL found 20.3 % while the ME+CL mixture provided 21.5 % attraction for Z. cucurbitae. In field tests, a greater number of B. dorsalis were trapped with ME alone (20.4 fly/trap/day, FTD), whereas the attraction of the ME and BO mixture was relatively low. For Z. cucurbitae, ME+CL (0.1-0.7 FTD) and CL (0.2-0.6 FTD) trapped more flies than mixtures combining BO, suggesting that combinations of BO with ME in rubber foam bases may be a viable alternative for the control B. dorsalis but not for Z. cucurbitae.

The mustard aphid, Lipaphis erysimi, is a significant agricultural pest, responsible for yield losses in several vegetable crops. A desire to reduce insecticide applications in green house vegetable production systems has led to increasing use of entomopathogenic fungi to manage pests, including aphids. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of the entomopathogenic fungus, Beauveria bassiana PSUB01, for the management of L. erysimi in Chinese kale grown hydroponically. Drenching roots and spraying foliage with B. bassiana PSUB01 conidial suspension were used as inoculation methods. Tested conidia concentrations of B. bassiana PSUB01 (10(8) and 10(9) conidia/ml) caused 87-89% mortality in L. erysimi after five days of application. The application of B. bassiana PSUB01 by root drenching colonised all treated parts (root, stem and leaf) with 64.0-96.0% colonisation (based on number of samples tested) in different part of tested plants during 7-21 days after inoculation. The application of B. bassiana PSUB01 on Chinese kale by either foliar spray or foliar spray + drenching of roots had reduced the fecundity of L. erysimi with very few progeny during 6-14 days of treatment. Also, application of B. bassiana PSUB01 by drenching of roots or by combination of foliar spray + drenching of roots enhanced plant growth parameters significantly except root length. These results suggest that B. bassiana PSUB01 could be included as part of an integrated pest management (IPM) plan for the management of L. erysimi under hydroponic production of Chinese kale and other vegetable crops.

The longkong bark eating caterpillar, Cossus chloratus Swinhoe (Cossidae: Lepidoptera), is a serious pest of longkong trees Lansium domesticum Correa that affects quality and quantity of the fruit. For eco-friendly management of this pest, Metarhizium guizhouense PSUM02, an entomopathogenic fungus, was tested under laboratory and field conditions of Thailand. Relative humidity (RH) more than 93% provides the highest virulence to M. guizhouense PSUM02 by reducing the survival of C. chloratus larvae to 0.0-18.0%. The average survival time (AST) of C. chloratus larvae infected with M. guizhouense PSUM02 at 100% RH showed the lowest AST of 3.9 +/- 0.2 days. The optimum temperature for M. guizhouense PSUM02 to infect C. chloratus larvae was 25-30 degrees C with 2-20% survival after 10 days of treatment. The AST of C. chloratus larvae infected with M. guizhouense PSUM02 at 25 degrees C or 30 degrees C was 5.8 +/- 0.6 or 3.4 +/- 0.2 days, respectively, which was significantly lower than the AST observed at 20 degrees C and 35 degrees C temperatures. M. guizhouense PSUM02 showed effectiveness under field conditions by reducing the number of larvae of longkong bark eating caterpillar C. chloratus in treated longkong tree. The application of M. guizhouense PSUM02 could be an effective option for the eco-friendly management of longkong bark eating caterpillars in the longkong orchards of Thailand and other longkong producing countries.

Aritra Kumar Mukherjee*, Sudipta Tripathi, Subhadeep Mukherjee, R. B. Mallick and Anannya Banerjee Department of Agricultural Chemistry and Soil Science, and Department of Agronomy, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, University of Calcutta, 51/2, Hazra Road, Kolkata 700 019, India IRDM Faculty Centre, School of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, Narendrapur, Kolkata 700 103, India

Zeugodacus caudatus (Fabricius) is a pest of cucurbit plants. The present study was conducted to draw the relationship among Indian Z. caudatus populations with the other defined genetic lineage of the species. A total of 18 individuals' mtCOI gene sequences from 3 populations of India were analysed along with 34 individuals' mtCOI gene sequences from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and China and generated 14 haplotypes. Phylogenetic study revealed the presence of distinct genetic lineage in Z. caudatus populations collected from India. The genetic distance between three distinct lineages of Z. caudatus was 0.057, 0.055 and 0.018 between Indonesia and Malaysia, India and Indonesia, and India and Malaysia, respectively and also evident from phylogenetic analysis. Further, the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene sequences developed in this study will help detection and geographical distribution of new haplotypes and lineages of the species in future.

Alternative strategies for insect pest management were looked and microbial pesticides in particular were noticed as attractive candidates. Among baculoviruses, the granulosis viruses are highly specific and safer to non target species. They are considered potential candidates for use as biological insecticides for control of economically important insects. These viruses are highly virulent, selective, stable and environmentally benign, once applied. However, usage and availability of granuloviruses is limited, worldwide. Slow action, restricted host range and low persistence are some of major drawbacks of such microbial pesticides, hindering their large scale usage. Methods must be developed for the unequivocal identification of these viruses. Their effects on non target species must be investigated at the cellular and molecular levels to enhance their role in pest management programmes. Efforts for identifying potent microbial agents, based on their rich biodiversity, must be applied extensively to expand the genetic make-up of baculoviruses. Recombinant DNA technology in baculoviruses could result in accomplishment of many achievements. In order to increase the uptake of baculoviruses, it is necessary to develop robust molecular biology techniques, to enhance safe food production for the nutritional and health security of growing population.

The mango leafhopper, Amritodus atkinsoni is a serious and an endemic insect pest of mango in India. We analyzed mtCOI gene sequences from six Indian populations of A. atkinsoni for genetic diversity and population structure. The analysis of mtCOI sequence revealed 14 unique haplotypes and a low level of nucleotide diversity. mtCOI gene sequence analysis also revealed that A. atkinsoni specimens were clearly differentiated from other closely related species with a high level of accuracy.

Bactrocera dorsalis, the Oriental fruit fly, is one of the world's most destructive agricultural insect pests and a major impediment to international fresh commodity trade. The genetic structuring of the species across its entire geographic range has never been undertaken, because under a former taxonomy B. dorsalis was divided into four distinct taxonomic entities, each with their own, largely non‐overlapping, distributions. Based on the extensive sampling of six a priori groups from 63 locations, genetic and geometric morphometric datasets were generated to detect macrogeographic population structure, and to determine prior and current invasion pathways of this species. Weak population structure and high genetic diversity were detected among Asian populations. Invasive populations in Africa and Hawaii are inferred to be the result of separate, single invasions from South Asia, while South Asia is also the likely source of other Asian populations. The current northward invasion of B. dorsalis into Central China is the result of multiple, repeated dispersal events, most likely related to fruit trade. Results are discussed in the context of global quarantine, trade, and management of this pest. The recent expansion of the fly into temperate China, with very few associated genetic changes, clearly demonstrates the threat posed by this pest to ecologically similar areas in Europe and North America.

The peach fruit fly, Bactrocera zonata, is among the most serious and polyphagous insect pest of fruit crops in many parts of the world under genus Bactrocera. In the present study, the genetic structure, diversity and demographic history of B. zonata in India were inferred from mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase 1 (cox1) and NADH dehydrogenase 1 (nad1) sequences. The efficiency of DNA barcodes for identification of B. zonata was also tested. Genetic diversity indices [number of haplotypes (H), haplotype diversity (Hd), nucleotide diversity (π) and average number of nucleotide differences (k)] of B. zonata populations across India maintain high level of genetic diversity without isolation by distance among the geographic regions. Non-significant negative correlation between pairwise Fst and geographic distance suggests a high level of gene flow among studied populations of B. zonata. The possibility of sudden expansion of B. zonata revealed through mismatch distribution analysis as well as negative Tajima's D and Fu's Fs values further supported by star-like network of haplotypes. DNA barcoding analysis suggests that B. zonata specimens can be clearly differentiated from other species with 100% accuracy of identification. Therefore, cytochrome oxidase 1 (cox1) barcode sequences generated in the present study could be a valuable source for the rapid identification and global population genetic study of B. zonata.

The complete mitogenome of Idioscopus nitidulus (Cicadellidae) was sequenced. It comprises 15,287 base pairs (bp), including 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes and a control region. The phylogenetic analyses based on concatenated thirteen protein-coding genes of mitogenomes recover the monophyly of Auchenorrhyncha (Fulgoromorpha + Cicadomorpha) and Sternorrhyncha as a sister group to Auchenorrhyncha. The complete mitogenome sequence of Idioscopus nitidulusis available in the GenBank with accession number: KR024406.