GAYATHRI. K*, MANJULA. K, HARIPRASAD. K.V AND GURIVI REDDY. M

Department of Entomology, S.V. Agricultural College, ANGRAU, Tirupati-517 502.

ABSTRACT

The details on the correlation between various weather parameters and the occurrence of major sucking pests like thrips

in Groundnut will be extremely useful in developing better Integrated Pest Management (IPM) methods, as weather parameters determine the pest’s population build up and severity. Field experiment conducted to study the incidence of thrips in Groundnut during rabi,2021-22 revealed that thrips population and damage on the crop commenced from 15 DAS and continued up to the end of the crop period. Thrips population reached peak during 6th SW of 2022 at 64 DAS with 6.44 thrips/plant. The infestation level reached to peak level from 64 DAS (97.05%) and there after became 100% by the end of crop period. However, the highest number of thrips (6/plant) was recorded during 64 to 78 DAS (i.e., 6,7 and 8 SW’S, February 2022). Correlation of weather parameters viz.,Maximum and Minimum Temperatures, Morning and Evening Relative Humidity, Rainfall and Sunshine hours with the incidence of Thrips revealed that thrips showed non-significant positive correlation with Max., Min. Temperatures, Morning Relative Humidity and sunshine hours and Negative correlation with Evening RH and Rainfall.

KEYWORDS: Thrips, Standard Week (SW), Weather Parameters, Correlation.