Author(s):

Priyankar Mondal, Moumi Ganguly, Pritha Bandyopadhyay, Krishna Karmakar, Anamika Kar and Dipak Kumar Ghosh

Abstract: After the invasive introduction of Spiraling whitefly (Aleurodicus dispersus Russell) and Silver leaf whitefly (Bemisia argentifolii Bellows) during 1993 and 1999, the Rugose Spiraling Whitefly, Aleurodicus rugioperculatus Martin appeared as a serious alien threat to Indian agriculture with its devastating infestation on coconut and banana in southern India during 2016. Recently in June, 2019 a severe infestation was recorded in coconut plantations of Teaching Farm, BCKV, and Mandouri which appears to be the first report of this invasive insect in Nadia district of West Bengal. Later RSW was also found to be associated with several other commercial crops as Banana, Mango, Guava and ornamental plants such as Majesty Palms, Powder puff and Indian Rubber Bush and Maize among the field crops. A substantial control was achieved by spraying with Flonicamid 50% WDG and Lancer Gold (Acephate 50% +Imidacloprid 1.8% SP) @5gm and 2gm/l respectively and root-feeding with Monocrotophos 36SL @4 ml/plant as immediate remedy measure. Evaluation of Neem based insecticide is under progress. In addition to this, an intensive survey for natural enemies revealed a high population of Neuropteran predators, few parasitoids and some Phytoseiid mites as natural enemies for the pest. The current study opens further opportunities for investigation on the management of RSW under West Bengal conditions.

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