Population dynamics of pod borer, Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) infesting chickpea.

The results of the investigation on population dynamics of chickpea pod borer, Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) on chickpea revealed that the pest appeared from 2nd week of December and attained a peak of 3.12 larvae per plant during 2nd week of January. The pest was active during the last week of December to 3rd week of January. Later on, the pest population declined gradually towards the maturity of the crop. Correlation of H. armigera with different weather parameters indicated that maximum temperature exhibited highly significant negative correlation (r=-0.7514) with larval population of H. armigera, whereas, minimum temperature (r=-0.5771) and mean temperature (r=-0.6836) exhibited significant negative correlation. However, the pest population showed highly significant positive correlation with morning relative humidity (r=0.7098), evening relative humidity (r=0.7293) and mean relative humidity (r=0.8063).