Integrated Pest Management

            Biological control is a component of an integrated pest management strategy. It is defined as the reduction of pest populations by natural enemies and typically involves an active human role. Keep in mind that all insect species are also suppressed by naturally occurring organisms and environmental factors, with no human input. This is frequently referred to as natural control. Natural enemies of insect pests, also known as biological control agents, include predators, parasitoids, and pathogens. The conservation of natural enemies is probably the most important and readily available biological control practice available to growers. The biological control involves the supplemental release of natural enemies also.

PARASITOID

Apanteles sp.

Appearance

• Adults have a predominantly black body with some yellow colouring on the abdomen and legs, and are 2.0-2.5mm long.
• Females have a short, pointed ovipositor through which eggs are injected into host caterpillars.
• Eggs are elongate and translucent, with a stalk at the posterior end, and are about 0.3mm long.
• Larvae hatch from eggs within 3 days of oviposition.
• Host caterpillars die within 24 hours of parasite emergence.

Pest and Stage attacked

• Larvae of tobacco caterpillars controlled by releasing Apanteles africanus
• Larvae stage of Spotted bollworm, American and pink bollworm are attacked by releasing Apanteles angaleti.
• Larval parasitoid of tobacco caterpillar by releasing Apanteles prodeniae.
• Larva of gram caterpillar and stem fly are parasitized

Top

Aphidencyrtus aphidivorus

Appearance

• Aphidencyrtus aphidivorus will attack the primary parasitoid larva either while the aphid is still alive or after the mummy is formed.

Pest and Stage attacked

• Parasites on safflower aphid

Top

Brachmeria sp.

Appearance

• Adults robust, coloration mainly black or brownish, with yellow, reddish or white markings.
• Head and thorax heavily sclerotized and usually coarsely and densely punctate.
• Antennae 13-segmented, with 1 or 2 ring segments and with club segments not markedly different from he funicle .
• Parapsidal sutures usually well developed, sometimes incomplete
• Ovipositor horizontal

Pest and Stage attacked

• American and Spotted bollworm are attacked.
• Larvae stage is attacked.

Top

Bracon spp.

Appearance

• Braconids are small wasps, rarely over 1/2 inch long, usually dark-colored with 4 transparent wings.
• The external cocoons resemble insect eggs, but are made of silk.
• Braconids are diverse and parasitize many insects.
• Some attack the host internally, others feed from the outside of a host insect.

Pest and Stage attacked

• Larva of gram caterpillar and tobacco caterpillar are parasitized
• Larvae stage of Spotted bollworm, American and pink bollworm are attacked by releasing Bracon brevicornis, B. greeni, B. gelechidophagus
• Parasites on leaf roller by releasing
• Parasitoid on capitulum borer in sunflower.

Top

Campoletis chloridae

Appearance

• The adult wasp is black, slender and about 1/4- inch long.
• The silken cocoon is white, oblong, and about 1/4 inch long.
• Antennae very long, with 16 or more segments
• These are internal parasitoids of immature holometabolous insects

Pest and Stage attacked

• Larva of gram caterpillar is attacked

Top

Chelonus sp.

Appearance

• These are small wasp
• Antennae apparently with 16 or more segments.
• Usually black or brown; some common species with reddish markings.

Pest and Stage attacked

• Egg and larva of gram caterpillar are parasitized.
• Red hairy caterpillar is parasitised.

Top

Cotesia spp.

Appearance

• Cotesia adults are small (about 7 mm), dark wasps and resemble flying ants or tiny flies.
• They have two pairs of wings, the hind wings being smaller than the forewings, and chewing-lapping
  mouth parts.
• The antennae are about 1.5 mm long, and curved (not elbowed) upward. The abdomen of the female narrows to a downward curving extension called the ovipositor with which she lays eggs.
• The pupae are in an irregular mass of yellow silken cocoons attached to the host larva or to plant
  leaves.

Pest and Stage attacked

• Larval parasitoid of tobacco caterpillar.
• Red hairy caterpillar is parasitised.

Conservation & Augmentation

• Use minimum insecticides

Top

Cremastus (Trathala) flavoorbitalis

Appearance

• The Cremastinae are internal parasites of Lepidoptera and Coleoptera larvae.

Pest and Stage attacked

• Parasites on leaf roller.

Top

Diadegma insulare

Appearance

• Diadegma insulare is a small (6 mm long) ichneumonid wasp with reddish-brown legs and
  abdomen.
• It pupates inside the cocoon made by the mature diamondback moth larva replacing the host pupal
  covering with its own cocoon which may have a distinctive white band.
• Diamondback moth cocoons are white inside (green when the larvae first form the cocoon),
• D. insulare wasps are visible as dark bodies inside the cocoon, before the adult D. insulare emerges.
• Adults can be seen searching in the crop foliage.

Pest and Stage attacked

• It is the most important parasitoid of the diamondback moth.

Conservation & Augmentation

• Limiting insecticide use and using Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) where possible, allowing wildflowers (especially wild brasiccas) to grow around crop fields, and allowing diamondback moth
  to colonize wild brassicas and crops will increase the abundance and effectiveness of D. insulare for management of diamondback moth.
• D. insulare females require nectar sources. A nectar source can increase D. insulare female longevity from 2-5 days to more than 20 days.

Top

Diaretiella rapae

Appearance

• These tiny, black wasps are not commonly seen, but the distinctive aphid mummies which remain on
  leaves after the parasite has killed aphids.

Pest and Stage attacked

• Nymph and adult of aphids are parasitized

Top

Diglyphus isaea

Appearance

• Diglyphus isaea is a black parasitic wasp of 2-3 mm long.
• The parasitic wasp lays its eggs in or next to leaf miner larvae of the second and third instar.
• The young parasite larvae hatch from these eggs, and will then feed on the body fluids of the larvae.
• Diglyphus isaea larva has 3 stages. The first instar larva is transparent, the second one is yellowish,
  and the third one is bluish green. In the last stage the larva crawls a little bit back in the mine to
  pupate.

Pest and Stage attacked

• It parasites about 65 to 86 % on pea leaf miner.

Top

Enicospilus sp.

Appearance

• The adult wasp is black, slender and about 1/4- inch long.
• The silken cocoon is white, oblong, and about 1/4 inch long
• Antennae very long, with 16 or more segments
• These are internal parasitoids of immature holometabolous insects

Pest and Stage attacked

• Attacks on gram pod borer

Top

Eretmocerus mundus

Appearance

• Both males and females are lemon-coloured. The males are only dark yellow on the upperside of the thorax, a part of their underside is brown
• Eretmocerus can develop in any larval stage of the whitefly, but it prefers the second and early third
  stage.
•  It lays its eggs under the whitefly larva. After 3 days the translucent eggs turn brown.
• Larvae will not develop before the whitefly larva has reached the second larval stage.
•  The complete life cycle takes 17 to 20 days, depending on temperature and the larval stage of
  whitefly. Two weeks after parasitation, the pupa will turn yellow.
•  In order to leave its host, Eretmocerus makes a small round hole in the parasitised whitefly, just as
  Encarsia.

Pest and Stage attacked

• Nymph and pupa stages of white fly are parasitized

Top

Eucelatoria bryani

Appearance

• Body small to medium, gray or dull coloured, with very strong bristles all over the body, especially on thoracic dorsum and 4th to 6th abdominal segments.
• Cell R-5 narrowed or closed at the wing tip.
• Presence of a row of setae on the meron

Pest and Stage attacked

• American bollworm is attacked.
• Its larvae stage is attacked.

Top

Geocoris tricolor F., Anth

Appearance

• Adults and nymphs have oval bodies and broad heads.
• Their most distinguishing characteristic is their large, bulging eyes.
• They have relatively short antennae that are slightly enlarged at the tip.
• Adults are about 3/16th inch long and silver/gray in appearance (G. punctipes).
• The immatures look like small adults, but lack fully developed wings.
• They are white to tan with a distinctive red spot.
• Both the adults and immatures feed by sucking juices from their prey through a "needle-like" beak.

Pest and Stage attacked

• Immature stages of white fly are parasitized

Conservation & Augmentation

• Geocoris spp. are very susceptible to broad spectrum pesticides. Polycropping, use of pest-specific insecticides (e.g., microbials, insect growth regulators, Bt cotton, etc.), and use of
  economic thresholds to minimize pesticide applications are all practical recommendations for
  preserving Geocoris.

Top

Goniozus spp.

Appearance

• These are primary ectoparasitoids of the larvae, and occasionally pupae, of Coleoptera or Lepidoptera, both as larvae and adults.
• Females search for hosts in concealed niches and sting them to permanent or temporary paralysis.
• Larvae are often gregarious.
• Males almost always fully winged; females alate, with reduced wings or without wings.
• Head elongate and depressed.
• Antennae 12- or 13-segmented, inserted close to clypeus.
• Seven or eight abdominal tergites visible.

Pest and Stage attacked

• Larvae of pink bollworm, spotted bollworm and american bollworm are attacked

Top

Gonatocerus spp.

Appearance

• These are tiny (1mm) parasitic wasps which lay eggs in the eggs of the insect.

Pest and Stage attacked

• It parasites egg of jassids.

Conservation & Augmentation

• No spraying or use of selective insecticides.

Top

Metopius sp.

Appearance

• Antenna inserted above the middle of the face.
• Palpi very long and hairy and 5 jointed.
• Head small, transverse

Pest and Stage attacked

• Pupal parasitoid of tobacco caterpillar

Top

Opius exigua

Appearance

• Adults are small black braconid wasps.
• The eggs are laid in leafminer larva.
• Larva develops in leafminer larva but does not complete development until pupation of host.
• Pupate in leafminer host puparium.
• The most abundant braconid parasite attacking leafminers completes it development in the leafminer
  puparia.

Pest and Stage attacked

• It parasites on pea leaf miner larva.

Top

Ormyrus sp

Appearance

• This is a very small, but distinctive family
• Body highly sclerotized and bright metallic green or bluish green
• Antennae short
• Notaular lines complete but shallow
• Stigmal vein very short (although sometimes with stigma very enlarged) so that apex of uncus almost touches anterior margin of fore wing
• Hind coxae several times longer than fore coxae
• Gaster hard, non-collapsing, mostly with characteristic deep pits

Pest and Stage attacked

• A parasitoid of pigeon pea pod fly.

Top

Phanerotoma hendicusisella

Appearance

• Phanerotoma sp. is a small braconid wasp.
• It is light brown. Its short abdomen is broad and slightly compressed.
• It has three visible abdominal segments. Another distinguishing characteristic of the wasp is its small
  terminal antennal segments.

Pest and Stage attacked

• Parasites on leaf roller

Top

Telenomus spp.

Appearance

• The Telenomus wasp is a shiny, smooth, black wasp slightly larger than an adult Trichogramma.
• They are generally small black species with keeled abdomens, short clubbed antennae, and no wing
  venation. They are parasitic on insect and spider eggs.

Pest and Stage attacked

• Eggs of American bollworms are attacked by Telenomus heliothidae.
• Eggs of tobacco caterpillar is parasitised by egg parasitoid of Telenomus remus.
• Larva of gram caterpillar are parasitized.

Top

Tetrastichus ayyari

Appearance

• They are parasites of a wide variety of hosts including lepidoptera larvae, some diptera larva,
  some are egg parasites, some are hyperparasites.
• Body with or without metallic luster.
• These small species (1-3 mm) have segmented tarsi and are diverse.

Pest and Stage attacked

• Pupal parasitoid of tobacco caterpillar

Top

Trichogramma spp

Appearance

• Trichogramma are extremely tiny wasps.
• The female Trichogramma lays an egg within a recently laid host egg, and as the wasp larva
  develops, the host egg turns black.
• Each female parasitizes about 100 eggs and may also destroy additional eggs by host feeding.
• The short life cycle of 8-10 days allows the wasp population to increase rapidly.

Pest and Stage attacked

• Gram pod borer is effectively controlled by releasing Trichogramma chilonis 1 lakh/ha.
• Egg Parasitoids ( T. evanescens ) of tobacco caterpillar, bihar caterpillar.
• Parasiting on egg of capitulum borer.
• Eggs of Spotted bollworm, American and pink bollworm are parasitised.

Conservation & Augmentation

• Trichogramma is active above 15°C, with an optimum temperature range of 23-25°C with 75%
  humidity.
• Conservation includes crop management practices that protect and encourage natural enemies and increase their impact on pests.
• Trichogramma are readily available for augmentative releases in large quantities from commercial suppliers. There are several species and strains of Trichogramma, which vary considerably in their ability to control different insects and in their adaptation to different environmental conditions and crops.

Top

Trichospilus pupivora

Appearance

• They are parasites of a wide variety of hosts including lepidoptera larvae, some diptera larva, some are egg parasites, some are hyperparasites.
• Body with or without metallic luster.
• These small species (1-3 mm) have segmented tarsi and are diverse.

Pest and Stage attacked

• Pupal parasitoid of tobacco caterpillar

Top

PATHOGEN

Nuclear Polyhedrosis Virus (NPV)

Appearance

• Nuclear polyhedrosis viruses have numerous polyhedral inclusion bodies 0.3 to 15 µm in diameter.
• The inclusion bodies contain rod-shaped viral particles with a size of 35 x 215 nm. The viral
  particles within the inclusion bodies are bundled in envelopes in groups of 2 or3.
• The larvae become infected with NPV once they eat virus-contaminated foliage.
• The NPV-infected larva becomes sluggish and stops feeding. It develops a whitish ventral side that
  becomes prominent at the intersegmental embranes. Later, the infected larva turns black.
• It eventually dies and is seen hanging on the foliage.

Pest and Stage attacked

•  Red hairy caterpillar (ANPV) is effectively controlled.
• Tobacco caterpillar (SNPV), Gram pod borer (HNPV) are effectively controlled.

Top

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)

Appearance

• Bt is a facultative anaerobic, motile, gram-positive, spore-forming bacterium. The formation of parasporal crystals adjacent to the endospore during sporulation stages III to IV distinguishes Bt from other Bacillus species.

Pest and Stage attacked

• Larva of gram caterpillar is infected.

Top

Beauveria bassiana

Appearance

• Beauveria bassiana forms white powdery conidial masses. The conidia are globose to broadly
  ellipsoid.
• They measure 2.5-3.5 µm. They are produced on sympodial conidiogenous cells that are present on hyphae arising from the mycelium mat.
•  They are 2-3 x 2-4 µm with dented zigzag-shaped rachis.
• Beauveria bassiana is an aggressive parasite of many different insect host species.
• The spores are tiny, measuring only a few microns.

Pest and Stage attacked

• Larval stage of american bollworm is attacked.
• It is used against defoliators
• It infect larva of pod borer
• For managing early stages of the pest capitulum borer

Conservation & Augmentation

• Beauveria produces spores that are resistant to environmental extremes and are the infective stage
  of the fungal life cycle.
• The spores (called conidia in this case) infect directly through the outside of the insect's skin.
• Under favorable temperature and moisture conditions, a conidium (singular of "conidia")
  adhering to the host cuticle will germinate.

Top

Nomouraea rileyi

Appearance

• Nomuraea rileyi is composed of pale green to gray-green conidiophores on a white basal felt of
  mycelium.
• The conidia are broadly ellipsoid and in dry chains.
• They are 3.5-4.5 x 2-3 µm long. The conidiophores have branches. Each branch contains 2-5 phialides or conidial chains.
• The early infective stage of N. rileyi is a white mass of fungus covering the larva. After a few days, the spores are formed and the host becomes pale green.
• Nomuraea rileyi attacks the larvae of stems borers, leaffolders, armyworms, and caseworms

Pest and Stage attacked

• It is effective against Gram pod borer, tobaccco caterpillar

Top

Metarhizium anisopliae

Appearance

• Metarhizium anisopliae has cylindrical conidiogenous cells.
• Inside the conidiogenous cells are powdery masses of dark green to yellow-green columns of conidia that arise from white mycelium.
• They form very long and laterally adherent chains.
• The spores are shaded green

Pest and Stage attacked

• It infect larva of gram pod borer and safflower caterpillar

Top

Trichoderma viride/ T. harizanum

Appearance

• These are fungi that are present in nearly all soils and other diverse habitats. In soil, they frequently
  are the most prevalent culturable fungi.
• They are favored by the presence of high levels of plant roots, which they colonize readily.

Pest and Stage attacked

• Charcoal rot, collar rot and sclerotinia stem rot can be managed by seed treatment.

Top