2006] Insect infestation at the nursery level of Terminalia arjuna in Punjab 1667 INSECT INFESTATION AT THE NURSERY LEVEL OF TERMINALIA ARJUNA (ROXB. EX DC.) IN PUNJAB Y.S. PANDHA, M.S. SAINI AND J.S. DARGAN* Department of Zoology, Punjabi University, Patiala (Punjab). Introduction Material and Methods Terminalia arjuna (Roxb. ex DC.) is Field experiments were conduted one of the most exploited plants. It finds during year 2003-2004 in nurseries at four wide usage in pharmaceutical, tasar, locations in Punjab falling in the following tanning and timber industry. It is a very Forest Divisions viz. Ludhiana (Baddowal), common multi-purpose plant grown in India Fatehgarh Sahib (Sirhind), Patiala (Sanor), and is used in rearing of Tasar silk worm Hoshiarpur (Forest Research Circle), to Antheraea mylitta Drury for obtaining one record the insect infestation at nursery of the important types of silk. This plant is level of Terminalia arjuna. Plots were laid attacked by many insect pests (Singh, 1989; out in randomized block design. Regular Beeson, 1941; Brown, 1968; Bhasin et al., observations were taken at 7-10 days 1958; Mathur and Singh, 1958-61; Dhar intervals and population was sampled by et al., 1988) whose incidence varied much direct counting. Sucking pests viz. Gallfly in different months of the year (Singh was observed from 3 leaves, one each from et al., 1992, 1994). Some workers (Mohanty upper middle and lower portion of seedling. and Behera, 1996; Joshi et al., 1989; Pathak Absolute population per seedling was et al., 1992) have also done work on the recorded in the case of defoliating management of various pests. caterpillars, beetles and borers as per survey method of Bakshi (1976). It appears from literature that no Observations were recorded in morning systematic efforts have been made till date and evening hours. Immature stages of to find out the infestation of economically insects were collected and reared in important insects especially at seedling laboratory on their host in glass chimneys stage of Terminalia arjuna in Punjab. or cages (Joshi and Khan, 1990) to get the Keeping paucity of knowledge in view, adults for identification wherever required. regular observations have been made at nursery level from sowing till Results and Discussion transplanting of seedling of this plant so as to report the infestation of different It has been observed for the first time insects on this important multi-purpose from Punjab that Terminalia arjuna tree in Punjab conditions. carried as many as 35 different insects at * Deptt. of Botany 1668 Indian Forester [December, different stages of seedling growth. The leaf, mining, folding or directly feeding on status of individual insects, their nature the mature leaves of seedlings. Attack of of damage along with taxonomic detail is leaf miner, Acrocercops sp. (Fig. 2) was presented in Table 1. observed from October to April. Whereas infestation of Macalla macusalis was found Among defoliators, around eight types in October only. of Orthopterans belonging to six families viz. Pyrgomorphidae (Fig. 1), Tetrigidae, Chrysomelid beetles were found Gryllidae, Tettigonidae, Acrididae and feeding mostly on the undersurface of Tridactylidae were found defoliating leaves by scraping or making holes in seedlings especially during the months of leaves. Along with Curculionid and May-June and from Sept to November. Halticin beetles, there were six types of Coleopterans feeding on seedlings. Infestation of Lepidopteran defoliators comprised of 6 type of insects which were Among sucking insect pests, found damaging seedlings by folding top infestation of Gall fly, Trioza fletchri minor Figs. 1-4 1. Grasshopper, Atractomorpha psittacina 2. Leaf miner, Acrocercops sp.; 3. Gall fly, Trioza fletchri minor; 4. Gall fly, Megatrioza hirsute 2006] In Table 1 The insect-pests recorded in the Terminalia arjuna (Roxb. ex DC.) nursery ecosystem from March 2003-Feb. 2004 at Punjab Sr. Name Family Damage Pest status Locality No. sect infestationatthenurserylevelof 12 3 4 5 6 I. Order Orthoptera 1. **Chrotogonus trachypterus Pyrgomorphidae Defoliates leaves Major LDH, PTA, FGS, HSP (Blanchard) 2. **Criotettix subulatus Boliver Tetrigidae -do- Minor LDH, PTA, FGS 3. **Gymnogryllus sp. Gryllidae -do- Minor LDH, PTA, FGS 4. **Tettigonia caudata Tettigoniidae -do- Major LDH, PTA (Charpentier) 5. **Trilophidia annulata Acrididae -do- Major LDH, PTA, FGS (Thunberg) 6. **Oxya velox (Fab.) -do- -do- Major LDH, PTA 7. **Tridactylus variegates Tridactylidae -do- Major LDH, PTA 8. **Atractomorpha psittacina (Haan) Pyrgomorphidae -do- Major LDH, PTA, FGS, HSP Terminalia arjuna II. Order Lepidoptera 1. *Seedling top leaf folder, Tortricidae Fold and feed Minor PAT Laspeyresia sp. on top leaf 2. *Leaf miner, Acrocercops sp. Lithocollectidae Forms mines Major FGS,LDH in leaves 3. *Leaf folder, Pyralidae Leaf webber Major LDH inPunjab1669 Macalla macusalis Wlk. and folder 4. *Brush Hairy caterpillar, Lymantiidae Defoliator Minor PAT, LDH Lymantria mathura Moore aurora Butl. 5. **Dichocrocis punctiferalis Pyralidae Leaf scrapper Minor PAT (Guenee) Contd... 1670 IndianForester [December, 12 3 4 5 6 6. **Looper, Ascotis imparata Geometridae Defoliate leaves Minor FGS, PAT, LDH III. Order Coleoptera 1. *Parasia lefevrei Jac. Chrysomelidae Scrap underside Minor PAT of leaves 2. *Red beetle, Tricliona sp. -do- -do- Minor PAT 3. **Monolepta signata (Olivier) Chrysomelidae Feed on young leaves Minor LDH, HSP 4. **Green Weevil, Lepropus Curculionidae Make holes in leaves Minor LDH, HSP, FGS, PAT (=Astycus) lateralis Fab. 5. **Haltica cyanea (Oliv.) Halticinae Scrap leaves Minor PAT 6. *Red pumpkin beetle, Chrysomelidae Damage leaves Minor PAT Aulacophora foveicollis (Lucas) IV. Order Hemiptera 1. Gall insect, Psyllidae Forms galls on leaves Major LDH, PAT, FGS, HSP Trioza fletchri minor Crowf. 2. *Gall insect, Megatrioza hirsuta -do- Deformity of leaves Major PAT 3. **Dolycoris indicus Stal. Pentatomidae Suck sap from leaves Major LDH, PAT 4. **Eucercocoris ventralis Westw. -do- -do- Minor LDH 5. **Chrysocoris patricius (Fab.) -do- -do- Major FGS 6. **C. stolli Wolff. -do- Suck sap from leaves Minor FGS 7. **Homoeocerus signatus Walk. Coreidae -do- Major LDH, PAT, HSP, FGS 8. **Ashistocoris brevicornis Dall -do- -do- Minor LDH, PAT 9. **Dysdercus koenigi (Fab.) Pyrrhocoridae -do- Minor PAT 10. **Spittle bug, Poophilus costalis Cercopidae Suck sap from nodes Minor LDH, HSP Walker 11. **Jassid, Hishimonous indicus Cicadellidae Suck sap from leaves Minor FGS, PAT, LDH (Sohi) 12. **Tree hopper, Membracidae Suck sap from shoots Minor LDH, PAT Oxyrhachis subjecta Walker LDH= Ludhiana; HSP= Hoshiarpur; FGS= Fatehgarh Sahib; PAT= Patiala * New host record from Punjab and ** New host record from India 2006] Insect infestation at the nursery level of Terminalia arjuna in Punjab 1671 Table 2 The insect visitors recorded in the Terminalia arjuna (Roxb. ex DC.) nursery ecosystem from March 2003-Feb.2004 at Punjab Sr. Name Family Stage Status Locality No. Order Lepidoptera 1. **Euproctis lunata Walker Lymantriidae Adult Minor HSP 2. **E. virgunculata Walker -do- Adult Minor LDH Order Coleoptera 1. **Casnoidea indica Thunberg Carabidae Adult Minor PAT LDH= Ludhiana; HSP= Hoshiarpur; FGS= Fatehgarh Sahib; PAT= Patiala * mean new host record from Punjab and ** mean new host record from India (Fig. 3) remained common feature on Two insect visitors (Table 2) seedlings of T. arjuna at nursery level. Its belonging to family Lymantriidae and one infestation starts from month of March- Coleopteran of family Carabidae were also April and goes up to November- December. recorded. Whereas attack of Megatrioza hirsute (Fig. 4) was observed between September- New Record / Reports : As this is first of November. Apart from it, Pentatomid bugs its kind detailed study in Punjab on like Dolycoris indicus, Chrysocoris this plant, therefore except Trioza patricius and Homoeocerus signatus were fletchri minor all other insect pests also found sucking sap of young leaves are new reports from Punjab. But from from August to November. By adding India except Laspeyresia sp., leaf mining insects of Membracidae, Cercopidae, Lepidoptera, Macalla macusalis, Cicadellidae, Pyrrhocoridae and Coridae Lymantra mathura, Aulacophora families, it becomes highest numbers of 12 foveicollis, Trioza fletchri minor and Hemipterans insects found infesting Megatrioza hirsute all others are new host seedlings of Terminalia arjuna. records. Acknowledgements The authors are thankful to Dr. A.S. Sohi, Department of Entomology, PAU Ludhiana and Dr. V.V. Ramamoorthy, Division of Entomology, IARI New Delhi for extending cooperation in identification of the insects. Thanks are due to officials of Forest Department Punjab for providing infrastructure facilities for conducting research experiments. SUMMARY It was explored that 35 insects species were infesting in overlapping manner the seedlings of Terminalia arjuna, starting from germination till transplanting in field, in the forest nurseries in Punjab. Among these there were highest number of Hemipterans (12) followed by 1672 Indian Forester [December, Orthopterans (8), Coleopterans (6), Lepidopterans (6) and three as insect visitors. Out of these thirty four are new host records from Punjab whereas twenty-eight are new host records from India. itkca e as VfeZufy;ks vtZquk ¼jkDlŒ fu"k/ks MhdS.Mkys ½s ij jki.khs Lrj e as dhVkØe.k okbZŒ,lŒ ik/kk]a ,eŒ,lŒ lSuh o tŒ,lŒs njxu lkjka’k ;g irk yxk;k x;k gS fd itkca e as vdqj.ka l s yxkdj {ks= e as izfrjki.ks djus rd VfeZufy;ks vtqZuk d s ikS/kk as dk s vf/kNknu djr s <xa l s iSrhla izdkj d s dhM s+ ou jkif.k;ks as l s vØkUr djr s gSAa bu dhMk as e as lcls T;knk l[;ka ¼12½ eRdq.kof'k;ka as dh gS ftld s ckn _tqi{k dhM +s ¼8½] dpqdi{ka dhM +s ¼6½ 'kfYdi{k dhM +s ¼6½ vkSj rhu ifjn'khZ dhM +s vkr s gSAa bue as l s pkSrhla dhM +s bl o`{ktkfr ij itkca e as yxr s uokYys [ks gS a tcfd vÎkbZl dhM +s Hkkjr e as bl ij yxr s uokYys [ks gSA References Bakshi, B.K.