Barkat Hussain

Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir | SKUAST-K · Division of Entomology

Bactrocera invadens Drew, Tsuruta & White is newly recorded from temperate climatic conditions of Kashmir Valley, northern India, coinciding with the fruiting season of common host plants such as Cucumis sativus, Lagenaria siceraria, Cucurbita maxima, Momordica charantia, Lufa acutangular, Citrullus vulgaris (Cucurbitaceae)., Lycopersicon escula...

Cereal rust is one of the most damaging diseases of small-grain cereals. The fungus Puccinia hordei causes leaf rust in barley and other small grain crops. Puccinia hordei causes serious yield losses in the cultivating areas where susceptible and late-maturing barley varieties are cultivated. Therefore, rust-resistant barley cultivar is highly dema...

Ladakh is home to therapeutic herbs, used to treat human and animal illnesses. This study, conducted from 2020 to 2022, provides the first systematic account of the aphids infesting these plants. A total of 37 species of medicinal plants belonging to 35 genera and 19 families, infested by 14 aphid species representing 10 genera, were reported. The...

Locusts has been considered one of the dreadful and destructive pests since the dawn of civilization, even mentioned in Holy Books and always considered world’s devastating pest attacking all crops, even all types of grasses, pastures, and trees. The devastation caused by the locusts is always alarming and threatening, leading to plagues and the lo...

First report of codling moth granulosis viruses from Ladakh valley

Codling moth is being reported in other countries of the world. It is a destructive and direct pest on apples and other fruit crops. The pathway for the occurrence of codling moth in the isolated belt of Baramulla is a cause of concern, and there is a need to contain this insect pest in other fruit-growing areas of Kashmir Valley. Here, we report a...

Locusts are migratory pests that often take aerial routes, in the form of massive and massive swarms, and are used as food in many forms. If we recall history, they have been used as food since centuries, well documented in the literature of various types. Various cultures and countries consume locusts, especially in Africa, Middle East, and Asian...

Tephrits cometa Loew, 1840, known to infest feld thistle or Canada thistle or creeping thistle Cirsium arvense, a medicinal plant used as a tonic and to treat disease such as diarrhea and tuberculosis; it is diuretc. Cirsium arvense is a perennial fowering plant belonging to the family Asteraceae and is natve to Europe, northern Africa, and western...

To better understand the elicitor induced defense in wine grapes against Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura), two varieties, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, were sprayed with jasmonic acid (JA) and salicylic acid (SA). Total phenols, total flavonoids, total tannins and total soluble sugars were quantified. Oviposition preference by D. suzukii in response to...

Bactrocera correcta Bezzi, (Diptera: Tephritidae), commonly known as the guava fruit fly appears to be the first fruit fly of Kashmir, India. B. correcta was first described in 1916 by Bezzi and has been reported from Bihar, Madya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Karnataka states of India. B. correcta (Bezzi, 1916) is an invasive p...

The effect of ionizing radiation from 50 to 450 Gy on the eggs and larvae 100 to 1500 Gy. on larvae of greater wax moth Galleria mellonella L. The results revealed that the egg hatchability reduced to 50% at 102.70 Gy. In the most radiation resistant eggs, 350 Gy resulted in no pupal formation while a dose of 250 Gy resulted in no adult formation....

Kashmir Himalaya being part of the Himalayan biodiversity, is home to many native/endemic plants as well as animal species that are under severe pressure from invasive alien plant species. The spread of invasive alien species (IAS) throughout the Himalayan region is ever increasing due to more people to people contact in the form of tourism, trade...

Jammu and Kashmir supports a flourishing vegetable cultivation sector, with cruciferous vegetables playing a vital role in the regional economy and dietary habits. In the year 2022, an experiment was conducted to monitor the population dynamics of diamondback moth larvae at different locations in the region during the Kharif and Rabi seasons. Our f...

Background To manage the cabbage butterfly, Pieris brassicae (L.) (Lepidoptera: Pieridae), it is not wise to use insecticides on leafy vegetables which are eaten mostly fresh. During the past decades, the efforts to manage the pest, through chemical insecticides have raised serious health. Investigations were carried out to isolate naturally occurr...

Food preferences and consumption parameters of Pieris brassicae larvae were carried out on 17 kale (Brassica oleracea var. acephala) genotypes. Fourth instar larvae reared on KL-36 genotype showed highest values for efficiency of conversion of ingested food (ECI) (77.36 ± 0.42%) and KL-18 genotype showed highest value for efficiency of conversion o...

Bio control using CpGV

Mango mealy bug, Drosicha mangiferae is a cryptic, destructive and polyphagous pest found throughout India and its neighboring countries. We devised, tested and validated the different modules/ techniques as alternatives to synthetic insecticides for managing D. mangiferae under field conditions. The physical barriers, namely glue traps, were found...

In this study the guava fruit fly Bactrocera correcta Bezzi (1916) (Diptera: Tephritidae) is reported from Kulgam, a major peach growing area in South Kashmir through July-August, 2020. District Kulgam was the leading producer of peaches with an annual production of 412MT during the 2018-19 growing season. This potential pest was trapped along with...

During the offseason, when fresh food is not available, humans have to consume stored grain food. Unfortunately, these stored grains are later infested with many pests. Foods stored in bags and bins are very much susceptible to infestation with several pests which can cause extensive post-harvest losses, spoilage, and less demand in markets, causin...

Insect–plant coevolution is going on for over 400 million years. Insects damage the plants, and plants have developed morphological, biochemical, and behavioural traits to withstand the insect damage. The insects in turn have developed strategies to counter the plant defensive traits. Host plant defence against insect pests is either constitutive o...

During the offseason, when fresh food is not available, humans have to consume stored grain food. Unfortunately, these stored grains are later infested with many pests. Foods stored in bags and bins are very much susceptible to infestation with several pests which can cause extensive post-harvest losses, spoilage, and less demand in markets, causin...

p> Phyllonorycter populifoliella (Treitschke 1883), is an invasive pest and is first reported on poplar trees, from the eastern region of Ladakh, India. The details of the taxonomic identification based on genital morphology are presented. Besides, host range, feeding habits and level of infestation in different hamlets of Ladakh are also presented...

There are lot of reasons and causes of insect decline. The main causes of insect decline is attributed to habitat destruction, land use changes, deforestation, intensive agriculture, urbanization, pollution, climate change, introduction of invasive insect species, application of pesticides, mass trapping of insects using pheromones and light traps,...

Calcium is a very poorly translocated nutrient in the flesh of apple fruits with the advancement of growth. Within the fruit, movement is further restricted toward distal portion relative to proximal. Even numerous foliar applications of calcium do not always achieve the desired effect. Thus, the objective of this study was to enhance the calcium a...

The giant willow aphid (GWA), Tuberolachnus salignus (Gmelin) was reported for the first time from the cold arid region of Ladakh, India. The identification of GWA was done based on morphological and molecular characterization. The important morphological characters of GWA are grayish-golden color, covered with numerous fine hairs with a large dark...

p>Nutritional indices and biochemical profile of Helicoverpa armigera in response to feeding on different groundnut genotypes was studied. The moderately resistant genotypes were ICGV 86699, ICGV 86031, ICG 2271 and ICG 1697. JL 24 was used as the susceptible check. Consumption index (CI), approximate digestibility (AD), efficiency of conversion of...

Chlorpyriphos is one of the major organophosphorus pesticides used widely to control a range of insect pests across several crops. The chlorpyriphos is hazardous to the environment and toxic to mammals, thus, it is essential to remove the same from the environment. Similarly, use of polythene is also increasing day by day. Therefore, it is highly i...

The codling moth is a threat to the apple industries in India. Currently, no solutions are available for the management of codling moth in Ladakh. Therefore, all fresh fruits from Ladakh are still banned due to quarantine regulations. Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh are the three main apple producing states of India, both in quali...

Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh are two union territories (UT's) famous for their beauty and cool climate. Both the UT's are familiar with their horticulture production at the national and international level. Jammu & Kashmir offers enough scope for cultivation of all types of horticulture crops covering various sub-tropical fruits like mango, guava, ci...

Codling moth (Cydia pomonella, Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) is a quarantine pest of apple in Ladakh, India. We report Cydia pomonella granulovirus from infected larvae of codling moth for the first time in India. The two CpGV isolates were identified as (CpGV SKUAST-1 and CpGV SKUAST-2) and published in Genbank under accession number, MK801791 and MK8...

Report of Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (Diptera: Drosophilidae) from the high‐altitude and cold arid region of Ladakh, India en Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura, 1931) is here reported for the first time from the high‐altitude and cold arid region of Ladakh, which is a Northwestern Himalayan region of India and is the second coldest inhabited place...

An experiment was conducted to study the role of soil mechanization on ecological integrity and yield attributes in apple cultivation. In the experiment, soil management techniques were applied on low density apple orchards (Red delicious/ seedling) continuously for four years in the tree rows and the drive allays, and results were obtained at the...

Nickel-oxide nanoparticles (NiO NPs) using aqueous Rauvolfia serpentine leaf extract were tested against Callosobruchus maculatus. Synthesis of NiO NPs was confirmed by various physiochemical methods such as UV-visible spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy etc. The sharp and strong reflections (111, 200, 22...

Nickel-oxide nanoparticles (NiO NPs) using aqueous Rauvolfia serpentine leaf extract were tested against Callosobruchus maculatus. Synthesis of NiO NPs was confirmed by various physiochemical methods such as UV-visible spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy etc. The sharp and strong reflections (111, 200, 22...

The present study was undertaken with a vision to study the status of commercially important fruit; Apricot and Apple in Ladakh region of J&K state, India. The study is based on the secondary data. The main source of data collection includes; Economic survey, statistical digest, government official records, books, magazines, articles and journals....

In this study, 19-year-old apple orchard at Arabal, Shalimar, Jammu and Kashmir, India, was selected during 2015 and 2016. Forty-five trees were treated with paddy straw mulch, paddy straw mulch followed by glyphosate @ 2.0 l ha⁻¹, oxyflourfen @ 1.0 l ha⁻¹, oxyflourfen @ 1.0 l ha⁻¹ followed by glyphosate @ 2.0 l ha⁻¹, atrazine @ 3.0 kg ha⁻¹, atrazi...

The turnip (Brassica rapa) Family: Brassicaceae (mustard family), is widely used in Kashmir as vegetable. In Kashmir, it is a popular vegetable both among rich and poor and grown in almost all kitchen gardens and also as a commercial crop around cities and towns. Farmers always need quality seed for sowing, hence it was felt to study the insect pol...

The theory of coevolution suggests that herbivores play an important role in the diversification and composition of plant communities. A prevalent idea holds that grasses and grazing animals participated in an evolutionary “arms race” as grassland ecosystems started spreading across the continents. In this race, besides other things, silicification...

Abstract Ladakh (Jammu and Kashmir) is the coldest arid region of India, where apricot is a major fruit grown across the region. In recent years, severe infestation by the defoliating caterpillar, brown-tail moth, Euproctis chrysorrhoea (L.) (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae), on apricot trees has been reported in and around the Batalik sector. During fie...

There is always a silent war between plants and herbivorous insects that we are rarely privy to. In this silent war, chemicals act as both weapons and messengers. Insect–plant co-evolution is going on for millions of years. Plants always look for new strategies to avoid insect pests and insects, in turn, are always ready to develop counter-adaptati...

The constitutive and induced resistance were studied in two varieties (Khanyari and Kawdari) of kale, Brassica oleracea var. acephala in response to cabbage butterfly, Pieris brassicae infestation and exogenous application of jasmonic acid (JA) and salicylic acid (SA). Phenols, condensed tannins, flavonoids and proteins were measured at six days af...

The qualitative and quantitative survey of flea beetles in the cruciferous vegetable ecosystem in different agro-ecological zones viz., North, South, and Central, of Kashmir valley revealed a total of four flea beetle species, which include Psylliodes tenebrosus Jacoby, Phyllotreta striolata (Fabricius), another different Psylliodes sp. Indet. 1 an...

The attractiveness and longevity of methyl eugenol dispensers to oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) was tested in a peach orchard in Kashmir, India. Methyl eugenol (ME) applied on plywood block captured male flies efficiently up to 10 weeks. Although the mean number of males captured during the 1st week in traps with plywood dispenser...

Twenty four local maize genotypes were screened for resistance/ susceptibility against C. partellus with respect to antixenosis and antibiosis mechanisms. The results revealed that the genotypes CM-133 and CM-123 were highly resistant with Leaf Damage Score (LDS) of 0.93 and 0.86, respectively, whereas Basi-local was observed extremely susceptible...

Twenty four local maize genotypes were screened for resistance/ susceptibility against C. partellus with respect to antixenosis and antibiosis mechanisms. The results revealed that the genotypes CM-133 and CM-123 were highly resistant with Leaf Damage Score (LDS) of 0.93 and 0.86, respectively, whereas Basi-local was observed extremely susceptible...

Climate change is a major concern for agriculture globally. Dynamic climatic parameters including increased temperature and carbon dioxide have greatly affected crop production. As a consequence of climatic uncertainties, new insect pests have emerged, the crop cultivation practices have changed, and drought and floods have created havoc around the...

Pheromone traps with different doses of disparlure [(Z)-7,8-epoxy-2-methyloctadecane] were tested for a local strain of the Indian gypsy moth (Lymantria obfuscata) at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir (India). Disparlure at 500 μg dose proved to be effective in trapping gypsy moth populations. The first ad...

Monitoring of P. brassicae was first time done in India so far and its quantification leads new pathways for climate change research because the butterfly start its emergence as soon as winter is over in Kasmir because butterflies are the best indicators of climate change. The best hotspots of P. brassicae in agricultural ecosystem has been generat...

This study was conducted in six major apple growing areas of the Kargil region during 2009 and 2010; pheromone traps were evaluated for the monitoring and mass trapping of the codling moth. Monitoring the population dynamics of Cydia pomonella in 2009 revealed that the first catch was observed on 21 May, the highest on 11 June, and the lowest on 13...

Studies were undertaken to explore the diversity of pollinators from agro ecosystems of Kashmir Himalaya comprising the Apple orchards at different altitudes from 1300 m MSL in district Baramulla to 2350 m MSL in district Shopian. Field experiments were conducted on 51 commercial fruit orchards at in three main apple producing districts viz. Baramu...

Efficacy of the combined treatment of a neem oil formulation and endosulfan on feeding and midgut enzyme activities of Helicoverpa ­armigera larvae was studied. The antifeedant activity was recorded at 24 h after treatment and the activities of midgut digestive (total serine protease and trypsin) and detoxifying (esterase and glutathione-S-transfer...

Jasmonic acid (JA) and salicylic acid (SA) are important phytohormones involved in plant resistance against insect herbivory and pathogen infection. Application of JA and SA induces several defensive traits in plants. Here we investigated the effect of JA and SA on trichome density in five groundnut genotypes [ICGV 86699, ICGV 86031, ICG 2271, ICG...

Cereal leaf beetle (Oulema melanopus) was recorded from Kashmir, which is one of the states of Indian Union during a survey conducted in rabi 2003-04 to know the pest complex on oat crop. Both the adults and larvae damage plants by chewing out long strips of tissues between the veins of leaves leaving only a thin membrane. When damage is extensive...

Abstract Given the economic importance of cucurbits and the losses incurred by fruit fly infestation, the population dynamics of fruit flies in cucurbit crops and the influence of abiotic parameters, such as temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, and total sunshine hours per day on the fruit fly population were studied. The study was carried out...

The effect of various flavonoids, lectins and phenyl b-D-glucoside on larval survival, weights and the activities of digestive (total serine protease and trypsin) and detoxifying [esterase and glutathione-S-transferase] enzymes of Helicoverpa armigera larvae at 5 and 10 days after treatment (DAT) was studied through diet incorpo-ration assay. Flavo...

Induced resistance was studied in three sorghum genotypes (IS2205, ICSV1 and ICSV700) against Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) (Lepidoptera; Pyralidae) infestation and jasmonic acid (JA) and salicylic acid (SA) application. The activity of plant defensive enzymes [peroxidase (POD), polyphenol oxidase (PPO), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT)],...

The effect of various flavonoids, lectins and phenyl b-D-glucoside on larval survival, weights and the activities of digestive (total serine protease and trypsin) and detoxifying [esterase and glutathione-S-transferase] enzymes of Helicoverpa armigera larvae at 5 and 10 days after treatment (DAT) was studied through diet incorpo-ration assay. Flavo...

Plants respond to herbivory through various morphological, biochemicals, and molecular mechanisms to counter/offset the effects of herbivore attack. The biochemical mechanisms of defense against the herbivores are wide-ranging, highly dynamic, and are mediated both by direct and indirect defenses. The defensive compounds are either produced constit...

Not Available

Economics of marigold as trap crop revealed that during 2003 and 2004 tomato equivalent yield was more in 3:1 combination which recorded 24557.14 and 28399.99 kg/ha followed by 6:1 combination which recorded 22974.14 and 26565.97 kg/ha, respectively. It is concluded that 3:1 combination (Tomato : marigold) was the best treatment followed by 6:1 and...

Fusarium pallidoroseum isolated locally from cadaver of Lymantria obfuscata was evaluated as bio-control agent against caterpillars of same pest at concentrations of 1×1010, 1×109, 1×108, 1×107, 1×106, 1×105, 1×104, 1×103, 1×102 and 1×101 spores mL-1. No mortality was observed up to 3rd day of inoculation. 1×1010 spores mL-1 was the most promising...

The natural appearance of mustard aphid on Brassica germplasm was observed on 11th January (60 DAS) and disappeared after 2nd March (110 DAS). The peak aphid population was found at a maximum, minimum and average temperature of 23.37°, 6.87° and 15.76°C, respectively and mean relative humidity of 54.75% on 10th February at 90 DAS. Then, de...

The use of marigold as a trap crop for the management of tomato fruit borer in tomato was evaluated. The proportion of larvae counted on trap row increased with increasing rate and on main crop decreased with decreasing rate at 65 and 80 days after transplanting. All the treatment combinations recorded lowest fruit damage, larval population on toma...

A field experiment during Kharif 2003 and 2004 to evaluate the efficacy of six insecticides at farmers field against Helicoverpa armigera infesting tomato. Among the treatments imidacloprid at 0.03% proved more effective followed by deltamethrin and fluvalinate. The spraying of these insecticides on tomato resulted in significantly higher reduction...

Different developmental stages of Coccinella septumpunctata was observed that the egg, larval, pre-pupal and adult stages occupied more duration in first generation as compared to second, total larval period 16±1.73 days and pupal period, 7.5±0.87 days was more in first generation in contrast to second 13.5±0.87 days and 6.5±0.87 days, respectively...

Different developmental stages of Coccinella septumpuncmm was observed that the egg, larval, pre-pupal and adult stages occupied more duration in first generation as compared to second, total larval period l6il. 73 days and pupal period, 7.30. 87 days was more in first generation in contrast to second 13.5 i0. 87 days and 6.5 i0. 87 days, respectivel...