Status of insect pests of safflower and their natural enemies in Bidar district of Karnataka, India

In the present paper, the pest status of aphids and lepidopteran pests and their natural enemies on safflower in Bidar district of Karnataka were recorded through survey. During the survey, one aphid (Uroleucon compositae (Theobald)) and five lepidopteran pests viz., safflower leaf eating caterpillar (Condica capensis (Guénee)), tobacco cutworm (Spodoptera litura (Fabricius)), beet armyworm (Spodoptera exigua (Hübner)), capsule borer (Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner)) and bordered straw moth/capsule borer (Heliothis peltigera (Denis and Schiffmüller)) were recorded. Among the lepidopteran pests, C. capensis and S. litura were predominant at vegetative stage. While S. exigua was also observed at vegetative stage, but the population was meagre. The capsule borers, H. armigera and H. peltigera were predominant at reproductive stage. Further, 12 natural enemies were recorded on aphid and lepidopteran pests. Of which, four genera of spiders (Araneus sp., Runcinia sp., Cheiracanthium sp. and Neoscona sp.) were recorded for the first time on aphid and lepidopteran pests. Two species of hymenopteran (Cotesia rificrus (Haliday), Rogas aligarhensis Qadri) and a dipteran (Megaselia scalaris (Loew)) were recorded on lepidopteran pests. Besides, the natural occurrence of two fungal pathogens (Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium rileyi) on H. peltigera was also recorded.