Seasonal Distribution of Pink Bollworm Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders) in Cotton inAndhra Pradesh

摘要

Cotton is one of the most important commercial crops supporting millions of people engaged in cotton cultivation, marketing, textile industry, garment making and exporting etc. In Andhra Pradesh cotton crop is intensively cultivated with high investment particularly on plant protection. Among the several pests that attack cotton from sowing to harvest, about a dozen pests cause economic damage as sap feeders and bollworms in different parts of the state. Among the bollworms, pink bollworm is posing serious challenge with the destructive larval stage usually secluded within the cotton fruiting bodies and not accessible to traditional control measures including insecticide sprayings. In most cases the presence of pink bollworm is not realised and themagnitude of the seriousness of the pest is grossly underestimated.