Cabbage flea beetle

Cabbage flea beetle

11. Cabbage flea beetle

Common name: Cabbage flea beetle

Important species
  • Phyllotreta cruciferae
  • P. chotanica
  • P. birmanica
  • P. oncera
  • P. downesi
Family: Chrysomelidae

Order: Coleoptera

Distribution: Europe, Erst while USSR, North and South America, Australia, Japan, India

Host range: Mustard, raya, toria, taramira, radish, turnip, cabbage, cauliflower, knol khol, cotton, cereals, dahlia, antirrhinum, sweet pea, etc

Damage:
  • Larvae live in soil and feed on roots of plants.
  • Adults feed on the cotyledons and leaves of young plants making round holes.
  • The stems, flowers and even pods may also be attacked.
  • The old leaves dry up and young leaves rendered unfit for consumption.
  • The attacked plants give decaying odour.
Identification:
  • The larvae are dirty white with pale white head, 5 mm in length. The adults vary in colour from shiny black to black. All species have very stout femora with which they jump like fleas.
8.6
Life cycle:
  • Oviposition period is 25-30 days
  • Incubation period is 5-10 days.
  • Larval period of 9-15 days
  • Prepupal period is 2-4 days
  • Pupal period is 8-14 days.
  • 7-8 generations in a year.
Salient features:
  • Over wintered adult beetles emerge in last weak of February or first weak of March.
  • The female lays 50- 80 creamy white eggs in the soil around the host plants
  • The larvae moult thrice
  • pupates in an earthen cell 0.5 mm long
Management:
  • Deep summer ploughing to kill the over wintering population.
  • In endemic areas the off season/ late season crop should be avoided.
  • In early planted crop or seedlings, malathion (5%) dust @ 10-15 Kg/ha should be used.
  • Oxy- demeton methyl @ 0.025%
  • Parasitoid Microctonus indicus also parasitizes adult P. cruciferae
Minor pests:


S.N.

Common name

Scientific name

Family

Order

1

Mustard aphid

Lipaphis erysimi

Aphididae

Hemiptera

2

Green peach aphid

Myzus persicae

Aphididae

Hemiptera

3

Cotton thrips

Thrips tobaci

Thripidae

Thysanoptera

4

Bihar hairy caterpillar

Spilarctia obliqua

Arctiidae

Lepidoptera

5

Green semi-looper

Trichoplusia ni

Noctuidae

Lepidoptera

6

Pea leaf miner

Chromatomyia horticola

Agromyzidae

Diptera

7

Mites

Tetranychus urticae

Tetranychidae

Acarina

8

Gram pod borer

Helicoverpa armigera

Noctuidae

Lepidoptera


Last modified: Wednesday, 7 March 2012, 6:39 AM