South East Asian Thrips (Thrips parvispinus (Karny) is a cosmopolitan invasive pest infesting chili, eggplant, papaya, cucurbits, beans, pepper, potato, shallot and strawberry. This pest also infests ornamentals like Anthurium, Chrysanthemum, Dahlia, Dipladenia, Gardenia and Ficus. Besides India, this pest is now known to occur in Australia, France, Greece, Hawaii, Mauritius, Reunion, Spain, Tanzania and the Netherlands. It is a polyphagous pest and this particular species was first reported on papaya from Bengaluru in 2015 and further dispersal of this pest on vegetables or ornamentals was not reported. However, during 2021-2022 sudden outbreak of T. parvispinus was reported in chili in Southern India especially Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka. It has now spread further to Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Haryana infesting capsicum and chili grown under greenhouse and open field. Thrips parvispinus adults mainly colonize on chili flowers and underside of leaves and larvae suck sap from under surface of leaves. Infestation causes heavy flower drop and leading to reduced fruit production. About 90 to 95 per cent of the flowers were found to be badly damaged and the average number of thrips recorded per flower was 18-20. In capsicum (Capsicum annuum), serious damage was recorded in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and farmers were forced to abandon the crop since the pest species was found to congregate in large numbers on flowers causing severe flower drop leading to huge yield loss to the farmers.
Image 1: Adults Thrips parvispinus aggregation on chili flower (left); Severe T. parvispinus infestation on terminal bud leads to inward curling of leaves (middle); Severely infested Capsicum fruit by T. parvispinus lost its market potential (right).
ICAR-NBAIR acts as a nodal agency for collection, characterization, documentation, conservation, exchange, research and utilization of agriculturally important insect resources and insect derived resources (entomopathogenic fungi, bacteria, virus and nematodes) for sustainable agriculture. On top priority ICAR-NBAIR scientists searched for effective entomopathogenic fungi and entomotoxic bacteria strains from ICAR-NBAIR microbial repository, for the management of different Thrips spp. infecting vegetables, fruits and ornamental crops.
Read more: https://www.nbair.res.in/sites/default/files/2023-04/ICAR-NBAIR%20report%20thrips.pdf
Original link: https://www.nbair.res.in/
