Office of Outreach and International Affairs

Permanent URI for this community

https://hdl.handle.net/10919/82664

Browse

Browsing Office of Outreach and International Affairs by Subject "biological control"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    IPM for tropical crops: lentil
    Sharma, Anamika; Muniappan, Rangaswamy (CABI, 2021)
    Lentil is an old-world legume and grown in more than 70 countries. It is a major source of protein in plant-based diets and is often used to fix nitrogen in the soil as a rotational crop, especially with cereal crops. Canada, USA, and Australia are the major exporters of lentil. Around the globe, this crop faces various biotic and abiotic stresses. More than 35 insect pests and the same number of diseases are reported to infest lentil in different parts of the world. While the status of insect pests and diseases varies in different geographical regions, some of them are aphids, armyworm, cutworm, pod borer, Stemphylium blight, fusarium wilt, Alternaria blight, and rust. Cultural management strategies for abiotic and biotic stresses include crop rotation, the timing of seeding, appropriate seed rates, and weed management. Biological control agents are also known for several insect pests. Environmental-friendly options such as biopesticides and microbials (entomopathogenic bacteria, fungi and nematodes, neem products, and Trichoderma sp.) can be used as seed treatment and foliar application. Various tolerant and resistant lentil varieties are available around the globe. In the present article, we provide an IPM package for the management of major biotic stresses for lentil crop.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Parasitism of Locally Recruited Egg Parasitoids of the Fall Armyworm in Africa
    Laminou, Saidou A.; Ba, Malick Niango; Karimoune, Laouali; Doumma, Ali; Muniappan, Rangaswamy (Muni) (MDPI, 2020-07-09)
    The fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is an insect native to the tropical and subtropical Americas that has recently spread to Africa, where it predominately attacks maize, sorghum and other plant species. Biological control is an environmentally friendly way of combatting the pest and contributes to an integrated pest management approach. In Africa, several trichogrammatid parasitoids and Telenomus remus Nixon (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae) have been found parasitizing eggs of the FAW. In Niger, the egg parasitoids encountered include Trichogrammatoidea sp. (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) and Telenomus remus Nixon. Parasitism of the FAW eggs by the two egg parasitoids was assessed in the laboratory, followed by field testing on sentinel eggs. In the laboratory, T. remus parasitized on average 78% of FAW eggs, compared to 25% for Trichogrammatoidea sp. Telenomus remus was able to parasitize egg masses that were fully covered with scales, while Trichogrammatoidea sp. parasitized only uncovered egg masses. On-farm releases of T. remus in sorghum fields caused up to 64% of FAW egg parasitism. Parasitized eggs yielded viable progeny, which can contribute to FAW egg parasitism build-up during the cropping season. Our findings lay the groundwork for the use of T. remus in augmentative releases against FAW in Africa.