Insect Pests of Vegetable, Ornamental and Spice Crops (2+1)

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.

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