Open Access
Journal of Plant and Pest Science (ISSN: 2204-0021)
Vol. 2, Issue.2: 41-07 (April 2015)
journals.sfu.ca/jpps/index.php/jpps/index
Original Research Article
Submitted: 20 April 2015, Accepted: 05 may 2015, Available Online: 23 May 2015
Weather factors influencing population of papaya mealybug, Paracoccus
marginatus (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae)
Atanu Seni1 and A. K. Sahoo2
ABSTRACT
Author Info
1
Field experiments were conducted to study the relationship between the population
1
Orissa University of Agriculture
& Technology, RRTTS,
AICRIP, Chiplima, Sambalpur768025, India
2
Department of Agril.
Entomology, BCKV, Mohanpur,
Nadia- 741252, India
E-mail:
*Corresponding author’s email:
buildup of papaya mealybug and the weather parameters at Kalyani, West Bengal, India.
Incidence of papaya mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus Williams and Granara de Willink was
higher in the 2nd and 3rd week of May month and the population declined gradually and
increased again in October month. Lower population found in January month. It is evident
[email protected]
that significant positive correlation was present between papaya mealybug population and
Key words
maximum temperature (r=0.756) whereas, the maximum relative humidity and rainfall had
Incidence, January month, May
negative correlation (r= -0.162 and r=-0.002) with papaya mealybug population. Their
month, papaya mealy bug,
relative humidity, temperature
population prevailed on papaya plant throughout the year.
Introduction
The papaya mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus is a
native of Mexico and/or Central America (Miller et al,
1999) and it was described by Williams & Granara de
Willink in 1992 (Ben-Dov 1994) from the specimens
collected in Mexico. It was first reported in St. Martin in
the Caribbean in 1995 and since then has spread to 13
countries in the Caribbean, Florida in the US, and three
countries each in Central and South America by 2000
(Miller et al, 1999; Kauffman et al, 2001). In 2002, it was
reported in the Pacific Islands (Meyerdirk et al, 2004,
Muniappan et al, 2006) and in 2008 in Indonesia, India,
and Sri Lanka (Muniappan et al, 2008). In 2009, it was
reported from Bangladesh and Maldives and in 2010 in
Cambodia, Philippines and Thailand (Muniappan 2011;
Seni and Chongtham 2013). The papaya mealybug,
Paracoccus marginatus is a hemipteran insect and belongs
to family Pseudococcidae. It can be distinguished by its
greenish yellow body (Miller et al, 1999) colour with large
amounts of white waxy secretion. It is polyphagous (Miller
and Miller 2002) in nature and sucks the sap of the plant
and weakens the plant. The leaves become crinkled,
yellowish and wither. The honey dew excreted by the bug
and the associated black sooty mould formation impairs
photosynthetic efficiency of the affected plants. In India it
has caused havoc in agricultural and horticultural crops
ever since its first report from Coimbatore in 2007. It has a
wide host range of over 60 species of plants including
economically important plants such as Annona squamosa,
Carica papaya, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Ipomoea spp.,
Cite this article: Seni A and Sahoo AK (2015) Weather factors influencing population of papaya mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus
(Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) , Journal of Plant and Pest Science, 2 (2): 41-47
41
Seni
Seniand
andSahoo
Sahoo(2015)
(2015)
Manihot esculenta and Solanum melongena (Chen et al,
Results and Discussion
2011; Seni and Chongtham 2013) and completed
11generation in a year (Seni and Sahoo, 2014). It
assumed the status of a major pest in 2009 when it
caused severe damage to economically important crops
and huge losses to farmers in Coimbatore, Erode, Tirupur
and Salem districts of Tamil Nadu (Tanwar et al, 2010).
The prevalence and buildup of papaya mealybug is
mostly
governed
by
weather
parameters
like
temperature, relative humidity and rainfall. Furthermore,
They were oval bodied insect, greenish-yellow in colour
with yellowish body fluid. No dorsal stripes are present on
females and mealy waxes dusted on dorsum are not thick
enough to hide their body colour. The body is fringed with
many short waxy filaments; the caudal filaments are about
one fourth of the body length. Adult male is deep red in
color with transparent wing, vestigial mouthpart and
longevity was 2-3 days.
the weather parameters vary greatly from place to place
The infestation of papaya mealybug may start at any time in
and season to season. Thus, the knowledge of the
a year as papaya is a perennial plant. In the present
influence of weather on papaya mealybug of papaya will
investigation, the incidence of papaya mealybug was higher
help develop a forecasting system. Therefore, the
in the 20
present investigation was undertaken to study the
gradually and increased again in 43 standard week (Table
relationship between the population build up of papaya
1). The population declined again during 1 standard week.
mealybug and the weather parameters in tropical climate
It is evident from table 3 that significant positive correlation
of West-Bengal.
was depicted between papaya mealybug population and
A number of mealybug colonies were collected from
papaya plant, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal. Then they
were reared on sprouted tubers of potato (Solanum
Linn.)
in
the
laboratory
at
24-34˚C
temperature and 84-96% relative humidity. The first instar
nymphs hatched within 24 hrs. were reared. The cultures
were maintained in a beaker, the mouth of which was
covered and secured with a piece of cloth and rubber
band. The experiments were conducted at C farm, BCKV,
Kalyani. All recommended agricultural practices were
followed from time to time to raise the crop successfully.
The incidence of papaya mealybug was recorded at
regular intervals. The observations were recorded on
three leaves per papaya tree in alternate fashion in
opposite direction. The data has been recorded by the
2
number of mealybugs per 75 cm leaf area. The weather
parameters viz., temperature (˚C), relative humidity (%)
and total rainfall (mm) in different standard weeks during
the standing crop of 2011 to 2012 were recorded and
their relationship with incidence of papaya mealybug was
worked out. For identification of papaya mealybug we
followed Miller and Miller, (2002) guidelines.
42
standard week and the population declined
rd
st
maximum temperature (r=0.756). Whereas the maximum
Materials and Methods
tuberosum
th
relative humidity and rainfall had negative correlation (r= 0.162 and r=-0.002) with their population build up (Table 3).
So, it can be said that papaya mealybug population was
2
higher (210 PMB/75 cm leaf area) during May due to the
higher temperature and lower during January month (43
2
PMB/75 cm leaf area) due to the low temperature. Mani
and Thontadarya (1987) found that the population built up
of the mealy bug, Meconellicoccus hirsutus in vineyards
was heavy from January to May and low from June to
December in South India. Maximum temperature showed a
positive and significant correlation with the mealy bug
population, while the relative humidity showed a negative
correlation. Shreedharan et al, (1989) reported that the
pest, Planococcus citri was severe in summer season
(March-July) and no incidence in winter season (OctoberNovember) in Mandarin orange (Citrus reticulata Blanw.).
This observation is in accordance with the findings of
Rishikumar et al, (2009) where they observed that the
correlation relationship was present between the mealy
bug,
Phenacoccus solenopsis population and biotic
factors. There was positive correlation among the per cent
field infestation by mealy bug and temperature, whereas
Journal of Plant and Pest Science
Seni and Sahoo (2015)
Table 1: Population builds up of papaya mealybug on papaya plant from 2011 to 2012
2
Sl. No
Month
Std. week
PMB population /75 cm *
1
January
1
43
2
January
2
45
3
January
3
58
4
January
4
61
5
Jan-Feb
5
65
6
February
6
72
7
February
7
75
8
February
8
76
9
Feb-March
9
83
10
March
10
89
11
March
11
121
12
March
12
133
13
March-April
13
138
14
April
14
156
15
April
15
163
16
April
16
177
17
April
17
185
18
April May
18
194
19
May
19
197
20
May
20
202
21
May
21
210
22
May June
22
167
23
June
23
148
24
June
24
140
25
June
25
162
26
June July
26
131
27
July
27
108
28
July
28
96
29
July
29
82
30
July
30
76
31
August
31
98
32
August
32
105
33
August
33
112
Journal of Plant and Pest Science
43
Seni and Sahoo (2015)
34
August
34
129
35
Au-Sep
35
138
36
September
36
156
37
September
37
171
38
September
38
153
39
Se-Oct
39
158
40
October
40
165
41
October
41
161
42
October
42
149
43
October
43
176
44
Oct-Nov
44
155
45
November
45
169
46
November
46
134
47
November
47
121
48
Nov-Dec
48
98
49
December
49
86
50
December
50
80
51
December
51
72
52
Dec-Jan
52
56
*Mean of three replications
Table 2: Average monthly meteorological data during 2011-12
M
o
Month
44
Temp ( C)
Rainfall
Relative Humidity (%)
Max.
Min.
(mm)
Max.
Min.
Jan.
24
12
0.50
94
59
Feb.
29
15
0.41
91
45
March
34
20
0.06
88
36
April
36
24
0.93
87
49
May
37
26
4.15
90
55
June
32
26
9.80
95
78
July
32
26
16.0
94
77
Aug.
31
26
17.0
97
82
Sep.
32
26
10.0
96
80
Oct.
33
23
2.74
95
72
Nov.
30
17
0.00
96
58
Dec.
25
12
0.00
96
56
Journal of Plant and Pest Science
Seni and Sahoo (2015)
Table 3: Correlation coefficient of the mealybug population with abiotic factors
Weather parameters
Papaya mealybug
Temperature(˚C)
Maximum
0.756*
Minimum
0.681*
Relative Humidity (RH)
Maximum RH
-0.162
Minimum RH
0.114
Rainfall (mm)
-0.002
*Significant at 1% level
Fig 1: Population buildup in February
Fig 2: Population buildup in April
Journal of Plant and Pest Science
45
Seni and Sahoo (2015)
negative correlation was observed with relative humidity
Miller DR, Williams DJ, Hamon AB (1999). Notes on a
and rainfall. Suresh et al, (2010) also reported that seasonal
new
incidence of P. solenopsis population was maximum (35
Pseudococcidae) pest in Florida and the
mealybugs/ 5cm) during June and decreased slowly during
Caribbean: The papaya mealybug, Paracoccus
September and there was no incidence up to February.
marginatus Williams and Granara de Willink.
Multiple correlation studies with weather parameters and
Insecta Mundi, 13:179-181
natural enemy activities indicated that there was a
mealybug
(Hemiptera:
Muniappan R (2011). Recent invasive hemipterans and
significant positive correlation with minimum temperature
their
and significantly negative correlation with relative humidity.
www.icac.org/tis/regional.
For every one unit increase of minimum temperature, there
was an increase of 0.77 unit of the pest population and
likewise a unit increase in morning relative humidity resulted
in decrease in pest population by 0.75 units.
Coccoidea:
biological
control
in
Asia.
Muniappan R, Meyerdirk DE, Sengebau FM, Berringer
DD, Reddy GVP (2006). Classical biological
control of the papaya mealybug, Paracoccus
marginatus (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) in
the Republic of Palau. Florida Entomologist,
This life history information of P. marginatus will help us to
89: 212-217
understand the developmental period of different instars
Muniappan R, Shepard BM, Watson GW, Carner GR,
and which will further help in implementing a suitable
Sartiami D, Rauf A, Hammig MD (2008). First
integrated pest management (IPM) program.
report of the papaya mealybug, Paracoccus
marginatus (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), in
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