International Journal of Horticulture, 2016, Vol.6, No.4, 1-6
4
was maintained at constant temperature of 20ºC. Whereas, pre-oviposition period of
C. montrouzieri
was 3.6 days
at 30ºC compared with the maintenance at ambient temperature (2.4 days). Thus, the slight variations in the
findings of present investigations regarding pre-oviposition period as compared to earlier reports is because of
variation in temperature while conducting the experiment.
The oviposition period of
C. Montrouzieri
was reported 75 and 69.5 days (Rao and David, 1958; Shekhar, 2001,
respectively). It was also observed that the female predator prefers wax filaments of mealy bugs for egg laying.
The same was stated by Merlin et al
.
(1996) that female delay oviposition and with held mature eggs in absence of
wax filament produced by the prey on grapevine mealy bug. The longevity of predator was recorded 52.2, 76.7
and 70.3 days for male and 80.2, 77.8 and 77.2 days for female
C. Montrouzieri
(Rao and David, 1958; Bhat et al
.
,
1981; Shekhar, 2001) which show more or less similarity with present observations
.
The fecundity of predator
female is quit deviating from the earlier record of 207 and 210.5 eggs (Rao and David, 1958; Mani, 1986,
respectively). However, Fisher (1963), Shekhar (2001) and Anon. (2006a) recorded fecundity of female
C.
montrouzieri
in the range of 194 to 729, 370 to 682 and 400 to 500 eggs, respectively. The female
C. montrouzieri
laid on an average of 476.2 eggs in it life time (Anil and Jeevan, 2008). The present finding is in close agreement
with the study conducted by Shekhar (2001) who reported the incubation period ranged between 4.6 to 7.55 days
on grape mealy bug. Bishop (1931) and Anil and Jeevan (2008) reported the incubation period of
C. montrouzieri
as 8 to 10 and 3 to 7 days on citrus mealy bug and grapevine mealy bug, respectively. Babu and Azam (1987)
concluded that higher temperature shortened and lower temperature increased the incubation period of eggs. The
egg hatching percentage is closely in agreement with the findings of Mineo (1967), Bhat et al
.
(1981) and Shekhar
(2001) who recorded 93, 97 and 100 per cent, respectively on citrus mealy bug and grapevine mealy bug.
In the present study, the results clearly indicated that the duration taken by the predator feeding on second instars
mealy bugs was little more than feeding on third instars mealy bugs. It is because of the sufficient nutritional
requirement by the predator to pass to next higher stage might have delayed the developmental period. Hence, it is
good to release the predatory grubs or adults at early stage of mealy bugs which will lead to good management of
mealy bug population build up and extended period of development will consumes more number of mealy bugs to
meet its nutritional requirements.
The developmental period of
C. montrouzieri
having close conformity with the findings of Mani (1986) who
reported 5.25, 4.40, 6.35 and 6.85 days on mealy bug eggs, 3.50, 2.20, 4.10 and 4.95 days on nymphs and 3.05,
2.25, 3.86 and 4.30 days on adult mealy bug taken to complete its first, second, third and fourth instar by
C.
montrouzieri
, respectively. In the present study the developmental period of grub is supported by Shekhar (2001),
Van Der Goot (1920) and Bhat et al
.
(1981) who reported the duration of 21.5, 20 and 19.5 days, respectively on
grapevine mealy bug. However, it differs from the observations of Liotta and Mineo (1965), Mani (1986) and
Murthy and Narayana (1986) who recorded it as 14 to 17, 13 to 16 and 31.6 days on citrus mealy bug
(
P. citri
) and
grapevine mealy bug, respectively. Ambule et al., (2014) reported that the feeding potential of
C. montrouzieri
on
grubs and adults of mealy bugs jointly revealed that the total consumption of grub was much higher on
M.
hirsutus
i.e.
144.4±15.64 with their longevity of 12.10±2.1 days than
Phenacoccus solani
Ferris and custard apple
mealy bugs. The difference in the grub developmental period reported by several workers may be due to
difference in quantity and quality of prey and different ecological factors prevalent during the study period.
The pre-pupal period is in conformity with the findings of Murthy and Narayana (1986) and Shekhar (2001) who
reported it as 1 to 2 days which prefers mostly the dark and shady places. But, it slightly deviated from the
findings of Mani (1986) and Anil and Jeevan (2008) on grapevine mealy bug and Hanchinal (2010) on cotton
mealy bug (
Phenacoccus solenopsis
Tinsley) who recorded 2 to 3 days. The pupal period in the study is having
corroboration with the findings of Rao and David (1958), Liotta and Mineo (1965), Mani (1986), Shekhar (2001),
Anon. (2006b), Anil and Jeevan (2008) on grapevine mealy bug and Hanchinal (2010) on cotton mealy bug who
reported as 7 to 8, 6 to 13, 7 to 9, 7 to 11, 6 to 10 and 8 to 9 days, respectively. In the present investigation
variations in the day duration of male and female beetle when fed with second and third instar mealy bugs, may be
