PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF COTTON CULTIVARS AGAINST POPULATION DYNAMICS OF BEMISIA TABACI AND THRIPS TABACI

M. J. Saleem, M. Adil, M. F. Raza, B. Atta

Abstract: This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of cotton cultivars in response to population fluctuation of Bemisia tabaci and Thrips tabaci in feld under Randomized Complete Block Design. Two transgenic cotton cultivars (FH-114 and FH-901) and two conventional cotton cultivars (FH-1000 and CIM-496) were used during this study, respectively. According to the results, Maximum susceptibility for both tested insect pests infestation was found in case of transgenic cotton cultivars as compared to conventional cotton cultivars. Highly signifcant variations were observed in B. tabaci and T. tabaci/leaf pooled comparison on different tested cotton cultivars. Maximum populations of B. tabaci (5.21 B. tabaci/leaf) and T. tabaci (4.47 T. tabaci/leaf) were observed on FH-114, whereas low level of infestation of B. tabaci (3.75 B. tabaci/leaf) and T. tabaci (3.31 T. tabaci/leaf) were observed on CIM-496. When data were statistically analyzed, higher level of B. tabaciand T. tabaci (5.19 B. tabaci and 4.46 T. tabaci/leaf, respectively) was observed on transgenic cotton as compared to conventional cotton cultivars (3.76 B. tabaci and 3.33 T. tabaci/leaf).

Keywords: Bemisia tabaci; population fluctuation; Thrips tabaci; transgenic and conventional cotton cultivars

Date published: 2017-09-25