Study of morphological and qualitative plant traits against the infestation of chilo infuscatellus L. (pyralidae, lepidopetra)

Abstract

The Chilo infuscatellus (Pyralidae, Lepidoptera; Snellen) caused significant losses in production and quality of sugarcane in Pakistan. The deficiency of easily discrete morphological and quantitative characters makes it remarkable to identify these characters in pest management. Present study; investigates the impact of morphological and quality traits of pest infestation during different stages of plant growth. Results revealed that varieties US-312, 1491, 718, 133 and CPF-246 performed better in terms of brix, POL, CSS, fiber, recovery, carbohydrates, moisture and fat contents percentage. Correlation values of different varieties in terms of qualitative factors were positive and significant. All plants traits in terms of qualitative factors including plant girth (cm), leaf area (cm), leaf sheath hairiness (cm2) and leaf thickness (mm) showed positive and had highly significant correlation with pest infestation. The coefficient of determination value R2 = 0.821 was obtained by computing brix, fiber contents, POL and CCS factors mutually from multivariate regression models. It was concluded, that morphological and qualitative plant factors could be helpful for management of sugarcane shoot borer.