SEASONAL INCIDENCE AND EFFECT OF ABIOTIC FACTORS ON POPULATION DYNAMICS OF MAJOR INSECT PESTS ON BRINJAL CROPPatel Hiral G., Patel H. V., Senjaliya Tushar M. and Divya H. PateAbstract Experiment was carried out on Seasonal incidence and effect of abiotic factors on population dynamics of major insect pests on Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) at College Farm, N. M. College of Agriculture, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari during summer-2020. The results revealed that incidence of shoot borer infestation on shoot was commenced from second week of March (11th SMW) to third week of May (21st SMW) while, infestation of fruit damage was noticed at first picking of the brinjal fruit in the first week of April (14th SMW) with maximum in fourth week of May (21st SMW). Shoot and fruit borer infestation exhibited significant and positive correlation with maximum temperature (r= 0.8129) and minimum temperature (r=0.8444) and wind velocity (r= 0.5871), respectively. Whitefly population was started from second week of February (9th SMW) with 0.93 whitefly per leaf, increased gradually to reach its peak in the last week of April, i.e.17th SMW (15.95 whiteflies/leaf) and positively and significantly correlated with and maximum temperature (r= 0.8062). The jassid infestation started from first week of March, i.e. 10th SMW (0.34 jassids/leaf), initially increased slowly and reached to its peak level (11.89 jassids/leaf) at last week of April (17th SMW) and positively and significantly correlated with maximum (r= 0.7202) and minimum (r= 0.5712) temperatures. Aphid population started from the first week of March (10th SMW) with a minimum level of 0.60 aphids/leaf, increased slowly and reached to its peak level (5.04 aphids/leaf) at third week of April (16th SMW) and exhibited positive and significant correlation with maximum temperature (r= 0.7849). |