Scenario of Arthropods Fauna on Rose in Southern Rajasthan

The arthropod fauna associated with rose at Udaipur comprised of 17 species of insects (6 pests and 11 pollinators). The pests included were thrips, aphids, the rose bud caterpillar, black flies and the scurfy rose scale while, pollinators included members of Hymenoptera and Diptera. During the crop season, the peak populations of thrips, aphids and larvae of rose bud caterpillar were recorded in the first week of April (9.80 thrips flower buds-1), first week of March (17.04 aphids flower buds-1) and first week of March (0.56 larvae flower-1), respectively. The mean atmospheric temperature evinced a positive correlation with thrips (r=0.832), rose bud caterpillar (r=0.607) and insect pollinators. Thrips (r=0.583) and aphids (r=0.622) had a significant positive correlation with sunshine, whereas the relative humidity indicates significant negative correlation with thrips (r=-0.720), aphids (r=0.581) and rose bud caterpillar (r=-0.817), respectively. The population of pollinators showed a significant positive correlation (r=0.573) with the mean atmospheric temperature; while a significant negative correlation (r=-0.769) with relative humidity. The relative density of pollinators visiting rose comprised: honeybees, A. florae & A. dorsata with 68.24 per cent; solitary bees (12.08%) and dipteran flies (19.55%). Most pollinators preferred to visit rose flowers during 9 to 11 hours of the day