Annual Report 2015-16 Jeeef<e&keÀ ÒeefleJesove 2015-16 ICAR –NATIONAL BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL INSECT RESOURCES (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) Bengaluru – 560 024, India jeä^er³e ke=Àef<e keÀerì mebmeeOeve y³etjes yeWieuet© ICAR –National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources, Bengaluru 560 024 Telephone: +91(080)-23414220; 23511998; 23417930 Fax: +91(080)-23411961 E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] Website: http//www.nbair.res.in ISO 9001:2008 Certified (No.6885/A/0001/NB/EN) Published by Director, ICAR-NBAIR, Bengaluru Compiled & Edited by Prashanth Mohanraj R. Rangeshwaran Sunil Joshi P. Sreerama Kumar Kesavan Subaharan R. R. Rachana K. Veenakumari Abraham Verghese Hindi Text Satandra Kumar May 2016 Disclaimer ICAR- NBAIR in no way endorses or discriminates against any product referred to by a trade name in this report Citation ICAR-NBAIR. Annual Report 2015-16. ICAR - National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources, Bengaluru, India, p. vi + 154 Printed at Sharadh Enterprises # 51, Car Street, Halasuru, Bengaluru 560 008 Mob: 9845944311, E-mail : [email protected] CONTENTS Prologue v 1. Executive Summary 1 2. Executive Summary (Hindi) 12 3. Introduction 22 4. Research Achievements 27 5. GenBank-BOLD Accessions 109 6. Identification Services 113 7. Extension Activities 114 8. Awards and Recognitions 115 9. AICRP/Coordination Unit/National Centres 118 10. Publications 120 11. Ongoing Research Projects 130 12. Activities of ITMU 134 13. Conference Papers 136 14. Meetings and Decisions 139 15. Participation of Scientists in Meetings 141 16. Trainings Conducted 143 17. Distinguished Visitors 146 18. Mera Gaon Mera Gaurav 147 19. Personnel 148 20. Exhibitions 150 21. Results Framework Document (RFD) 151 Annual Report 2015-16 PROLOGUE It is impossible to think about plants or animals as discrete entities without a name for each one of them. As the Chinese say, ‘the beginning of wisdom is calling things by their right names’. But, what happens when you have to put a name to over 10 or 50 million species (the estimates currently accepted by both field and theoretical biologists) of which only a little over a million species of insects (which is 58 per cent of all species described so far) have currently been named. Add to this, that it has taken us over two-and-a-half centuries to name this one million species since the enterprise began with Linnaeus in 1758. It then goes without saying that the task before us of describing (or attaching a name to) the vast majority of insects that remain unknown and anonymous to us is a prodigious task. While the situation is grave all over the world, it is graver still in the tropics (where India is situated) which is home to a greater proportion of organisms (including insects) than any other region of the world. The tropics harbour a burgeoning human population that is pushing many other forms of life to extinction, so much so that we are changing landscapes unalterably, pushing extinction rates to never before known levels, far above the long term average rate of extinction. This unprecedented impact of our species on the global environment has resulted in scientists labelling our age the Anthropocene or the Age of Man. They foresee a rapid decline in biodiversity triggered by human activity and a sixth mass extinction episode in the not so distant future, if we do not mend our callous ways. Under these circumstances taxonomists have to work swiftly if they have to catalogue fast disappearing species before they are lost forever. In response to this sense of urgency the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) turned the spotlight from an exclusive focus on insects as agents for the biological control of crop pests to that of insect taxonomy to enable us to discover our hidden hexapod wealth with their multifari- ous environmental roles. The National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources (NBAIR) was thus born from the embers of the Project Directorate of Biological Control (PDBC) – the institution that preceded it. Taxonomy was now to become the driving force to provide the much needed foundation for the study of insects rendering invaluable and irreplaceable services in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. Agroecosystems henceforth were no more to be viewed in isolation but as interlinked with all other ecosystems with insects as the glue (in Daniel Janzen’s perceptive terminology) binding them together. And insects of importance in agroecosystems were no more to be seen solely as crop pests or their natural enemies. A host of other insects rendering a range of services like pollination, nutrient cycling, maintenance of soil structure and providing nutrition to other organisms (farmed insects could be used as protein supplements in animal feed and even as rich sources of protein for humans, if we were to overcome our cultural biases to eating them) which had so far been neglected were now to become the foci of targeted studies. ICAR - NATIONAL BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL INSECT RESOURCES v Annual Report 2015-16 It was also realised that taxonomy was no more the exclusive preserve of taxonomists. Today it is increasingly being viewed as a service discipline in addition to being the traditional research discipline of taxonomists. Applied biologists and environmental scientists require the identities of species, which forms the basis of their research endeavours. They look forward to operating taxonomic keys or using identification guides that will enable the identification of species without professional taxonomic training. Their ideal would perhaps be something like the hand held device envisaged by Janzen (the visionary American biologist, once again) that could directly read off the genome of an organism, compare it with a computerised database of all organisms on earth and dis- play the identity of any species. With the vast majority of insects remaining to be described, named and catalogued this currently remains largely in the realm of science fiction. With a strong contingent of taxonomists (collecting, describing and cataloguing our vast insect diversity), molecular entomologists (focussing on molecular taxonomy) and insect ecologists (working on agroecosystem services rendered by insects in addition to their function as regulators of crop pest populations) studies are underway at NBAIR to harness the power of insects to increase agricultural productivity and boost the incomes of our farming community. Director ICAR - NATIONAL BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL INSECT RESOURCES vi Annual Report 2015-16 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The ICAR - National Bureau of groups of the genus Glyptapanteles. The present Agricultural Insect Resources is the only study, suggests the presence of 26 additional institution in the country recognized as Glyptapanteles species within 8 species- a National Repository for agriculturally groups, which were previously unrecognized. important insects, spiders and mites. The Bureau is committed to the collection, cataloguing The genera Prestwichia and Mirufens and conservation of insects and other related were discovered from Great Nicobar. The latter organisms including mites, spiders, nematodes was collected from leaf galls of Dipterocarpus sp. and microbes associated with arthropods in the Trichogrammatoidea nana and Trichogramma agroecosystems of our country. Research work achaeae were the first trichogrammatids to be in the Bureau is undertaken in the three Divisions collected from the Nicobars. A new species of of Insect Systematics, Molecular Entomology Trichogrammatoidea resembling the unusual and Insect Ecology. Work related to biological Chinese T.tenuigonadium was discovered from control is formulated and coordinated under Mudigere in Karnataka, India. the All India Coordinated Research Project A new species group has been proposed (AICRP) on Biological Control of Crop Pests. with five new species – Idris adikeshavus sp. The results of the research are summarized n., I. brevicornis sp. n., I. deergakombus sp. n., below. I. teestai sp. n., and I. lopamudra sp. n. Ten new species of Platygastridae from India viz. Insect Systematics Amblyaspis khasiana sp. n., A. kurinji sp. n., Four new species of the genus Gastrotrypes longicaudatus sp. n., G. manii sp. Diolcogaster Ashmead, 1900 were described. n., Isolia kalingi sp. n., Synopeas (Sactogaster) Diolcogaster andamanensis from the Andaman ribhoiense sp. n., Trimorus leptoclava sp. n., Islands, and D. duocolor, D. longistria and D. Ptilostenius griffithi sp. n., and P. nicevillei sp. solitarium from mainland India. The solitary n. and Gryon ingens sp. n. were described. larval parasitoid D. solitarium was reared from Aphid species viz., Aphis (Bursaphis) Gates clarkeana sp. (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae). solitaria McVicar Baker and Brachycaudus Two new species of parasites, Tetrastichus (Brachycaudina) napelli (Schrank); thetisae, a gregarious parasitoid reared on mealybugviz., Formicococcus formicarii Curetis thetis (Drury) pupa and Sympiesis (Green) and scale, Anomalococus crematogastri thyrsisae (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), reared (Green) and P. urbicola Cockerell were on Gangara thyrsis larvae feeding on coconut recorded for the first time form India. Similarly, were described. Trionymus townesi Beardsley and Dysmicoccus Morphology, host records, and molecular carens Williams were recorded for the first time phylogenetic analyses were integrated to from Karnataka. 11 species of aphids, a species generate boundaries between species/species- of mealybug and two species of