Seasonal abundance and effect of abiotic factors on mango leaf hopper Amritodus atkinsoni (Leth.) population on wild and different cultivators of mango in Jammu region

Abstract

The mango leaf hopper Amritodus atkinsoni (Leth.) is a very serious pest of mango in J&K region. A series of experiments were conducted on seasonal abundance and the influence of abiotic factors on the incidence of A. atkinsoni on wild and different cultivars of mango viz Dashehari, Langra, Malda and Amarpalli  at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Science and Technology Jammu, and, at a mango orchard at Nagbani. The mango hoppers (adults) started appearing with the panicle emergence during the months of February-March and reached its peak ranging from 9.6 to 14.2 in wild and all cultivars under study during May-June. After this the hopper population started declining, but showed another peak (6.6 to 9.8) during August-September which is comparatively lower than the previous one. This clearly indicates that the species breeds twice a year thus a bivoltine species. From September onwards, the hoppers went on declining and vanished by the end of December as they migrate to cracks and crevices of tree trunk and overwinter as adults. Abiotic factors such as maximum temperature (X1), minimum temperature (X2), morning relative humidity (X3), evening relative humidity (X4) and rainfall (X5) had much impact on the growth of hopper population. The hopper population correlated negatively and significantly with morning relative humidity (r = -0.635 to - 0.816) and evening relative humidity (r = - 0.289 to - 0.556) and showed a significant positive correlation with mean maximum temperature (r = 0.692 to 0.915) and minimum temperature (r = 0.590 to 0.881) in wild and all four cultivars, whereas rainfall remained fluctuating throughout the study period thus didn’t show any significant impact.