K. C. AHIR, B. S. RANA, O. P. AMETAAND A. MORDIA

The seasonal incidence of major insect pests of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) was recorded during July to October 2014 at the Instructional Farm of College of Technology and Engineering, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur. Groundnut crop was infested by aphid ( Aphis craccivora Koch), jassid (Empoasca kerri Pruthi), thrips ( Scirtotharips dorsalis Hood) and tobacco caterpillar ( Spodoptera litura Fab.). The study revealed that the incidence of aphid, jassid and thrips started in the 2 week of August; while, tobacco caterpillar appeared in 2 week of September. The population of aphid ( A. craccivora ) touched the peak in the 3 week of September with a mean population of 7.60 aphids/3 leaves; whereas, jassid (E. kerri ) and thrips ( S. dorsalis) increased slowly and attained the
peak in the second week of September with a mean population of 7.00 jassids/3 leaves and 3.80 thrips/3 leaves. The population of tobacco caterpillar, S. litura reached the peak in the 2 week of October with a mean of 1.40 caterpillars/ plant. The correlation between population of thrips and relative humidity was positive and significant; while the tobacco caterpillar exhibited a negative and significant correlation with relative humidity and total rainfall.