The pink bollworm [Pectinophora gossypiella) (PBW) is a destructive bollworm of cotton severely affecting the quality of cotton lint with presence in all cotton growing countries and a difficult pest to manage. PBW has been an invasive pest into mostcountries and is thought to have originated somewhere in Southeast Asia and gradually spread to the cotton fields of the southwestern USA through the middle east carried through 'fuzzy' cotton seeds infested with the resting stages of the pest (Naranjo et al., 2002). In India, PBW infestation of cotton has been recorded by entomologists in early 1900 and was so severe in south India during the British rule that a legislation was enacted in the presidency of Madras on the movement of cotton seeds from areas with PBW infested cotton (Ramachandra Rao, 1921). PBW continued to be key pest on hybrid cotton which was developed in India using the American tetraploid Gossypium species. Though it is a global pest, much of the content in this chapter is directedto the situation in India because it is the only country where PBW populations have evolved field-resistance to Bt cotton since 2010. The problem in India is quite acute in view of the large acreage of Bt cotton (~11.5 million acres) available for the Bt-resistant PBW for multiplication making India a fit case for the re-visit of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) methods for PBW management.
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