A record on the insect pests of wild relatives of pigeonpea, mungbean and urdbean

Integrated approaches are being followed for the management of pests in the present world. One of the components in IPM is the use of host plant resistance, which can be easily adopted by the farmers with a cheaper cost. For the identification and development of resistance sources, wild relatives of different cultivated species are being employed. This kind of approaches are being followed in the legume improvement programme also. One of the major limiting factors in pulse production is the pest complex, which inflicts heavy yield loss. The major legume insect pests are the gram pod borer Helicoverpa armigera Hubtter, pod fly Melanagromyza obtusa, spotted pod borer Maruca vitrata Geyer and pod bugs Clavigralla gibbosa Spinola, Riptortus spp. and blister beetle, Mylabris sp. (Durairaj 1999). The gram pod borer is the most devastating pest of pigeonpea, which cause worldwide yield loss of more than $317 million annually (Shanower et al. 1999). As there was low level of resistance in cultivated types of pigeonpea, the search for resistance sources has been included on non-cultivated Cajanus sp. also (Lateef et al. 1981).