Preference of bottle gourd flowers by red pumpkin beetle

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to find out preference of red pumpkin beetle (Aulacophora foveicollis Lucas) towards male and female flowers by the adults during summer, 2002 at ICAR-IIVR, Varanasi (U.P.). Total sixteen germplasm of bottle gourd were sown and during the reproductive stage of the crop, in each germplasm 5 male and female flowers were randomly selected separately for counting the population of red pumpkin beetle at peak flowering period. Average beetle population among all the germplasm was 0.56/flower, with maximum (1.34/flower) in VRBG-91 whereas VRBG-105 was free from infestation. Significant distinction in number of beetles recorded on male (1.04) and female (0.07) flowers. The male flowers were more preferred by the beetles than female flowers. Such preference may be mediated through variable nutritive quality of flowers of different sexes i.e. the male flowers contain pollens on which most of the adult insects survive.