Indian Journal of Entomology 83(2021) Online published Ref. No. e20111 DoI No.: 10.5958/0974-8172.2020.00203.5

EFFICACY OF BIOFORMULATIONS AGAINST CUT WORM AGROTIS IPSILON HUFNAGEL IN

Manishkumar J Joshi*, K S Verma, R S Chandel, A G Inamdar1, Shruti Kaushal and Abhishek Rana

Department of Entomology, CSK Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University, Palampur 176062 1Department of Entomology, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari 396445 *Email: [email protected] (corresponding author)

ABSTRACT

The 1st, 2nd and 3rd instar larvae of the potato cut worm Agrotis ipsilon Hufnagel were subjected to leaf dip method of bioassay to evaluate some bioformulations. It was observed that dashparni ark was the most effective causing maximum mortality followed by brahmastra, agniastra, neemastra and garlic + ginger + mint mixture. The bioformulations evaluated at 10% in the potato seedling trays decreased the damage by the 4th instar larvae to 69.24% with dashparni ark, accompanied by brahmastra (61.53%), agniastra (49.24%), neemastra (41.53%) and garlic + ginger + mint mixture (29.24%) compared to untreated control. The results thus reveal that the bioformulations cause mortality in the early instars, and reduce the damage by the later instars.

Key words: Agrotis ipsilon, intrinsic toxicity, neemastra, brahmastra, dashparni ark, garlic, ginger, mint, leaf dip method, bioassay, pot culture experiments

Cut worms are polyphagous and cosmopolitan pests agniastra, neemastra, dashparni ark, and garlic + which attack many crops (Ram et al., 2001; Mrowczynski ginger + mint mixture are used in zero-budget natural et al., 2003; Napiorkowska and Gawowska, 2004). farming to manage various insect pests. These products The damage is caused by the larvae hiding in the soil. therefore need evaluation to effectively manage cut These come out of those hiding places at night and cut worms and the present study explores the toxicity of down the young at ground level and eat only the some bioformulations and evaluate them under pot tender parts (Bhattacharyya et al., 2014). In India, five culture conditions. species of cut worms viz., Agrotis ipsilon Hufnagel, A. interacta Walker, A. flammatraF., A. spinifera Hubner MATERIALS AND METHODS and Agrotis segetum Denis and Schiffermuller are The study was carried out under laboratory known causing 12-40% yield loss in potato (Saxena conditions in the Department of Entomology, and Misra, 1990). The larvae feed on variety of hosts CSKHPKV Palampur, Himachal Pradesh during namely potato, , , mustard, linseed, cabbage, 2018-2019. For the maintenance of initial culture, the peas, gram, tobacco etc. However, they prefer gram adult moths were collected with light traps installed at over pea, potato and cabbage (Ram and Mishra, 2002). the Entomology Farm in CSK HPKV, Palampur and In Himachal Pradesh, greasy or black cutworm, A. brought to laboratory. The moths were transferred to ipsilon and common cut worm, A. segetum are the two glass chimneys (20 x 10 cm) for mating and oviposition. major species (Verma and Verma, 2002). The use of In each chimney, one pair of moth was released, and insecticides for their control is common practice, but a crumpled paper was placed in the chimney as a their indiscriminate use has resulted in problems such resting as well as oviposition site. Cotton swab soaked as the development of resistance to various pesticides in honey solution (10%) was provided as a source of and secondary pest outbreak (Sharma and Verma, food. The females mostly oviposit on white muslin 2015). The biopesticides (botanicals and microbial cloth and crumpled paper. Such papers and the muslin insecticides) are suitable replacements (Sharma et al., cloth bearing the egg masses were then transferred into 1997). The bioefficacy of botanicals and microbial plastic jars (100 ml). pesticides against A. ipsilon is well known, as is evident from Badiyala and Sharma (2007) and Hasan and Ansari The eggs which were laid on the sides of the chimney (2011). Many bioformulations such as brahmastra, were separated with camel hair brush and transferred 2 Indian Journal of Entomology 83(2021) Online published Ref. No. e20111 into the same jars. Thereafter, fresh substrate was dipped in the solutions of different concentrations provided for further egg laying. Once the eggs turned of each bioformulation for 2 min, shade dried and blackish, fresh and soft cabbage leaves were placed then placed in the plastic jars for larval feeding. The inside the jars as food for newly emerging larvae. The prestarved larvae (10 no.) were transferred to each larvae of each day hatching were kept separately in plastic jar with camel brush for feeding on the pretreated individual plastic jars and provided with fresh food for leaves of cabbage. In control, the cabbage leaves were getting the insects of desired age for bioassay purpose. dipped in water alone, shade dried and given to the After attaining third instar stage, ten such larvae were larvae for feeding. Water soaked cotton plugs were transferred to each plastic jar containing a layer of about wrapped around the petiole of the cabbage leaves in 5 cm moist soil and sand mixture. These larvae were order to keep the leaves fresh. Mortality data were provided with fresh cabbage leaves from time to time. taken after every 24, 36 and 72 hr of treatment. The The full fed larvae pupated in soil were then sexed and larvae were considered dead if they were desiccated kept separately in another plastic jar for further culture with shortened body, dark cuticle and/or were unable of A. ipsilon. The same procedure was followed for to move in a coordinated manner when disturbed with rearing the successive generations. The rearing work a brush. The corrected mortality was calculated as per was carried out under controlled conditions at 25± Abbott (1925). The mortality data were subjected to

1°C and 75± 5% RH, and 16:8 (L:D) photoperiod. probit analysis as per Finney (1971) and LC50 and LC90 The culture so obtained was used for the study. Five values were calculated. For probit analysis, the mortality bioformulations viz., brahmastra, neemastra, agniastra, data after 72 hr were taken. dashparni ark and garlic + ginger + mint mixture, of which the constituents are given below herein were The efficacy of bioformulations was also evaluated evaluated. on potato seedlings in pot culture. For this purpose, plastic trays (50 x 40 cm) were filled with a mixture The leaf dip method of bioassay was used to evaluate of sterilized soil, sand and FYM (1:1:1) and 15 potato these products against 1st- 3rd instar larvae using 2.5, 5, seedlings were raised in the trays. In each tray, nylon 10, 20 and 40% concentrations. Counted numbers of net sheet was tied tightly all around its four sides to larvae were kept in clean and dry plastic jars having restrict the movement of the cut worms and to avoid appropriate filter paper inside. Before application of their escape. Ten early 4th instar were released in each treatment the larvae were starved for about 2-3 hr. Each tray at the time when potato seedlings attained 10- treatment was applied to ten larvae and each treatment 15 cm height. The bioformulations at recommended was replicated thrice. The fresh cabbage leaves were concentrations of 10% were sprayed on the seedling

Bioformulations Constituents Dashparni ark Cow urine (5 L), cow dung (3 kg), neem (Azadirachta indica) leaves (5 kg), karanja ( pinnata) leaves (2 kg), nirgudi (Vitex negundo) leaves (2 kg), custard apple (Annona reticulate) leaves (2 kg), red corner (Adenanthera pavonina) leaves (2 kg), papaya (Carica papaya) leaves (2 kg), green chilli (Capsicum annuum) paste (2 kg), castor ( communis) leaves (2 kg), garlic (Allium sativum) paste (250 g) and water (200 L) Agniastra Cow urine (10 L), tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) leaves (1 kg), green chili (Capsicum annuum) leaves (500g), garlic (Allium sativum) paste (500 g), neem (Azadirachta indica) leaves pulp (5 kg) and water (100 L) Neemastra Cow urine (5 L), cow dung (5 kg), neem (Azadirachta indica) leaves (5 kg) and water (100 L) Brahmastra Cow urine (10 L), neem (Azadirachta indica) leaves (3 kg), custard apple (Annona reticulate) leaf (2 kg), papaya (Carica papaya) leaf (2 kg), pomegranate (Punica granatum) leaves (2 kg), guava (Psidium guajava) (2 kg), Lantana camera leaves pulp (2 kg), white dhatura (Datura sp.) leaves (2 kg) and water (200 L) Garlic + ginger + Ginger (Zingiber officinale) (200 g), garlic (Allium sativum) (200 g), mint (Mentha mint mixture sp.) leaves (200 g) and water (600 ml) Efficacy of bioformulations against cut wormAgrotis ipsilon Hufnagel in potato 3 Manishkumar J Joshi et al. during the evening hours and each treatment was fly in cucumber by Sharma et al. (2016) revealed that replicated thrice. Data on number of plants cut by the the neem based biopesticide, nimecidine (5 ml/ L) was larvae in each treatment along with untreated control promising followed by asafoetida + panchgavya (10%), were observed on 1, 3 and 5 days after application. The dashparni (5%) and askvaan + fermented butter milk data thus collected were subjected to ANOVA as per (10%). Dashparni ark at 0.025 % was used for control Gomez and Gomez (1984) after arc sine transformation. of all type of pests as reported by Kumar et al. (2016). As revealed by Kumawat et al. (2014), dashparni extract RESULTS AND DISCUSSION is very useful for the control of wide range of pests The toxicity of bioformulations against 1st to 3rd such as thrips, leaf folder, leafhopper etc. Sharma et al. (2014) revealed that maximum mortality was recorded instar larvae of A. ipsilon with their LC50 valus is given in Table 1. The order of toxicity 1st instar larvae was- in dashparni extract (5%) followed by agniastra (5%) dahparni ark > brahmastra > agniastra > neemastra > against capsicum aphid. In case of pea leaf miner in organically grown garden pea, agniastra (5%) was garlic + ginger + mint mixture with LC50 values 8.28, 10.38, 11.19, 14.53 and 16.66%, respectively. found superior followed by neem based formulation, panchgavya (10%) and dashparni (5%). Ghaywat et Dashparni ark was found to be the most toxic. With al. (2017) studied various bioproducts as pesticides in nd rd 2 and 3 instar larva similar trend in toxicity was agricultural practices and concluded that dashparni ark observed. These results are in confirmation with earlier was effective. work (Anees, 2018; Santhosh, 2008). Regarding the management of pests in chilli, neem seed kernel extract The pot culture studies revealed that the effect of (5%) was effective followed by panchgavya, dashparni, bioformulations as given in Table 2, against 4th instar agniastra, brahmastra and cow urine (Ananthi et al., larvae. After 5 days damage of 26.67 to 42.22% was 2017). However, aginastra (5%) was the most effective observed with ashparni ark, brahmastra, agniastra, for controlling pod borer larvae followed by brahmastra neemastra and ginger + garlic + mint mixture, (5%) (Shekhara et al., 2014). Hegde and Nandihalli respectively. While in control, 68.84% was the damage. (2009) found that NSKE (5%) with cow urine (10%) This indicated that the dashparni ark (10%) provided and cow dung (10%) recorded least larval population better reduction in damage followed by brahmastra of okra fruit borers. Studies on management of fruit (10%), agniastra (10%), neemastra (10%) and ginger +

Table 1. Toxicity of bioformulations to larvae of A. ipsilon (leaf dip method)

Sr. Bioformulation LC50 Regression equation Slope (b) Heterogeneity Relative No. (%) toxicity 1st instar 1. Dashparni ark 8.28 Y=3.50 + 1.63 X 1.63 ± 0.29 0.27 2.01 2. Brahmastra 10.38 Y=3.35 +1.63 X 1.63 ± 0.28 0.14 1.60 3. Agniastra 11.19 Y= 3.38 + 1.55 X 1.55 ± 0.27 0.16 1.48 4. Neemastra 14.53 Y=2.97 + 1.75 X 1.75 ± 0.29 0.57 1.14 5. Garlic + ginger + 16.66 Y= 3.00 + 1.64 X 1.64 ± 0.29 0.27 1.00 mint mixture 2nd instar 1. Dashparni ark 9.82 Y=3.42 + 1.60 X 1.60 ± 0.27 0.04 1.94 2. Brahmastra 11.58 Y=3.47 +1.44 X 1.44 ± 0.27 0.69 1.64 3. Agniastra 13.21 Y= 3.30 + 1.52 X 1.52 ± 0.27 0.03 1.44 4. Neemastra 15.43 Y=3.16 + 1.55 X 1.55± 0.28 0.80 1.23 5. Garlic + ginger + 19.01 Y= 2.97 + 1.58 X 1.58 ± 0.29 0.17 1.00 mint mixture 3rd instar 1. Dashparni ark 11.69 Y=3.50 + 1.41 X 1.41 ± 0.27 0.01 1.97 2. Brahmastra 15.08 Y=3.20 +1.53 X 1.53 ± 0.28 0.23 1.53 3. Agniastra 17.32 Y= 3.20 + 1.46 X 1.46 ± 0.28 0.08 1.33 4. Neemastra 20.40 Y=2.94 + 1.57 X 1.57± 0.29 0.13 1.13 5. Garlic + ginger + 23.04 Y= 2.99 + 1.48 X 1.48 ± 0.29 0.05 1.00 mint mixture 4 Indian Journal of Entomology 83(2021) Online published Ref. No. e20111

Table 2. Effect of bioformulations on the damage by A. ipsilon on potato seedlings in pot culture Treatment % cut/ days after treatment Mean 1 3 5 Dashparni ark (10%) 6.67 11.11 26.67 14.81 (14.96)a (19.26)a (30.96)a (21.84) Brahmastra (10%) 11.11 13.33 31.11 18.52 (19.26)ab (21.41)a (33.79)ab (24.92) Agniastra (10%) 15.56 20.00 37.78 24.44 (23.12)bc (26.55)b (37.89)bc (29.23) Neemastra (10%) 17.78 24.44 42.22 28.15 (24.84)cd (29.57)bc (40.50)bc (31.69) Garlic + Ginger + 24.44 31.11 46.67 34.07 Mint Mixture (10%) (29.57)d (33.86)c (43.06)c (35.53) Control 33.33 46.67 64.44 48.15 (35.18)e (43.06)d (53.46)d (43.90) C.D. (P= 0.05) (5.44) (4.72) (6.89) - Values in parentheses arc sine transformed values garlic + mint mixture (10%) which showed a relatively some biopesticides and insecticides against cutworm, Agrotis slow action. Thus, bioformulations were effective in ipsilon Hufnagel on spring potato. Pesticide Research Journal 19: 37-41. reducing the damage. These results are in confirmation Barapatre A, Lingappa S. 2003. Larvicidal and antifeedant activity of with those of Santhosh (2008) on agniasthra being as indigenous plant protection practices for Helicoverpa armigera effective as NSKE (5%), followed by brahmasthra, (Hub.). Proceeding. national symposium fronterier areas of neemasthra-I and II. Vijayalakshmi et al. (1996) entomological research. pp. 335-336. reported that garlic alone or in combination with other Bhattacharyya B, Pujari D, Bhuyan U, Baruah A A L H. 2014. Management of potato cutworm, Agrotis ipsilon (Hufnagel) in products like cow urine and kerosene was quite effective Assam. Pesticide Research Journal 26: 82-85. against Helicoverpa armigera. Abhilash (2005) reported Finney D J. 1971. Probit analysis. Cambridge University Press, the effectiveness of V. negundo and pongamia leaf Cambridge, London. 318pp. extracts against Cydia ptychora in . Barapatre Ghaywat L D, Mandlik S, Shaikh S A. 2017. Study of various bioproducts and Lingappa (2003) and Ladaji (2004) revealed the used as pesticides and fertilizers in agricultural practices - a effectiveness of cow urine along with various botanicals. review. International Journal of Scientific Research in Science and Technology 3: 154-157. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Gomez K A, Gomez A A. 1984. Statistical procedures for agricultural research. 2nd ed. John Wiley and Sons, New York. 680pp. The authors thank the Head, Department of Hasan F, Ansari M S. 2011. Toxic effects of neem-based insecticides on Entomology, CSK HPKV Palampur for providing Pieris brassicae (Linn.). Crop Protection 30: 502- 507. laboratory facilities. Hegde K K, Nandihalli. 2009. Bioefficacy of some indigenous products in the management of okra fruit borers. The Journal of Plant Protection REFERENCES Sciences 1: 60-62. Joshi M J, Verma K S, Chandel R S. 2020. Feeding inhibition with Abbott W S. 1925. Method for computing the effectiveness of an bioformulations in cut worms Agrotis ipsilon (Hufnagel). Indian insecticide. Journal of Economic Entomology 18: 265-267. Journal of Entomology 82: 134-138. Abhilash C. 2005. Ecofriendly management of soybean pod borer with Kumar T K, Rao B B, Dasu C S, Rao G, Ramana M V. 2016. Application special reference to Cydia ptychora (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: of indigenous technical knowledge in organic fruit production. Totricidae). M Sc Thesis, Department of Entomology, University Progressive Research- An International Journal 11: 4761-4765. of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad. 149 pp. Kumawat N, Shekhawat P S, Kumar R, Sanwal R C. 2014. Formulation of Ananthi M, Selvaraju P, Sundaralingam K. 2017. Evaluation of seed biopesticides for insect-pests and diseases management in organic biopriming with biocontrol agents and biopesticides spraying on farming. Popular Kheti 2: 237-242. pests and its effect on seed yield and quality in chilli. Journal of Entomology and Zoology Studies 5: 667-672. Ladaji R N. 2004. Management of chickpea pod borer, Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) using indigenous materials and newer Anees M M. 2018. Bioefficacy of some organic products against insecticides. M Sc Thesis, University of Agricultural Sciences, Spodoptera litura (Fab.). M Sc thesis, Department of Entomology, Dharwad. CSK HPKV, Palampur. 79 pp. Mrowczynski M, Wachowiak H, Boron M. 2003. Cutworms- a dangerous Badiyala A, Sharma D C. 2007. Bioefficacy and persistent toxicity of pest in the autumn of 2003. Ochrana Roslin 47: 24-26. Efficacy of bioformulations against cut wormAgrotis ipsilon Hufnagel in potato 5 Manishkumar J Joshi et al.

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(Manuscript Received: May, 2020; Revised: June, 2020. Accepted: June, 2020; Online Published: November, 2020) Online published (Preview) in www.entosocindia.org Ref. No. 20111