Arthropod Diversity and Succession of Insect Pests in Black Gram Ecosystem

A field experiment was conducted at Agronomy farm, B. A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agricultural University, Anand during Kharif, 2019 and 2020 with an objective to study the diversity and pest succession based on crop growth stages in black gram. The results revealed that a total of eight insect pests and two natural enemies belonging to five orders and eight families were recorded in black gram. Besides, population of sucking pests viz., whitefly and jassid observed from seedling stage till maturity stage of the crop. While flower thrips were noticed from flower bud stage to pod formation stage. The population of green stink bug was observed from vegetative stage to pod formation stage. Among the lepidopteran pests, the incidence of semilooper was observed from vegetative stage to pod maturity stage. Bihar hairy caterpillar and leaf eating caterpillar were observed from seedling stage to pod maturity stage. Whereas, spotted pod borer population was observed with the initiation of flowering and remained till pod maturity stage of the crop. The natural enemies viz., coccinellids and spiders were observed from vegetative stage to pod maturity of the crop. Moreover, correlation studies indicated that whitefly, jassids, flower thrips, green stink bug, semilooper, leaf eating caterpillar, Bihar hairy caterpillar and spotted pod borer were significant positively associated with each other. Besides, there was a significant positive companionship exhibited between natural enemies viz., coccinellids and spiders with insect pest population in black gram ecosystem.