Monitoring and varietal preference of mango midge, Procontarinia mangicola (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae).
Wali Muhammad, Naeem Iqbal, Shafqat Saeed, Muhammad Javed, Khalid K. M.
Author Affiliation: Pest Warning and Quality Control of Pesticides, Agriculture Department, Government of Punjab, Punjab, Pakistan.
Pakistan Journal of Zoology 45 : 1273-1278
Abstract : The current study was planned to evaluate the efficiency of colored sticky traps and plastic sheets in capturing adults and larvae of Procontarinia mangicola, respectively. The susceptibility of different varieties of mango against P. mangicola was also explored. Amongst the eight types of color traps, orange colored traps captured the highest number (145.6±19.7/trap) of P. mangicola adults while white-colored traps captured the lowest numbers (23.7±3.4/trap). The peak adult and larval population was observed on February 11, 2010 (138.9±25.4/m2) and March 2, 2010 (216.9±24.9/m2), respectively. The highest numbers of galls were recorded on Sufaid Chaunsa (2.91±0.2/leaf) followed by Dusehri (2.8±0.2/leaf), Ratol (2.3±0.2/leaf) and Kala Chaunsa (1.74±0.2/leaf). Maximum numbers of larvae were obtained under the canopy of Sufaid Chaunsa (25.6±3.9/m2), followed by Dusehri (22.4±3.7/m2), Ratol (10.3±1.3/m2) and Kala Chaunsa (8.6±0.7/m2). The highest numbers of galls/leaf and larvae/trap recorded on Sufaid Chaunsa indicated that it was the most preferred mango variety. The research findings will be helpful for the proper management of P. mangicola and to avoid losses to the mango industry.