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Imidacloprid and thiamethoxam insecticides have been important tools for controlling pests in black gram. The use of these pesticides on various crops has increased rapidly resulting the produce containing toxic residues from the application of these insecticides and in some cases the concentrations are above maximum residue limit. The prudent usage of synthetic insecticides resulted in secondary pest-outbreaks, resistance development, food, and ecosystem adulteration and so on which pose serious threat to human beings. However, food safety issues related to pesticide residues are important to consider with a food crop such as black gram which causes no harm to consumers and are permissible in domestic and international trade. Therefore, the objective of this study was to analyse harvest time residues of imidacloprid and thiamethoxam in black gram. The study was conducted during the summer season 2021 at Research Farm, Tirhut College of Agriculture, Dholi (Muzaffarpur)-Bihar. The crop (cultivar SML 613) was sown on February, 27, 2021. Insecticides were applied at 30 days after sowing which was followed by two successive sprays at 15 days intervals following the recommended dose of 25 g a.i. ha-1 for both the insecticides. Sample aliquots were analysed using HPLC (High Pressure Liquid Chromatography) equipped with Photo Diode-Array Detector (PDA). The sample taken at harvest with a pre-harvest interval (PHI) of 28 days did not reveal the residues of imidacloprid and thiamethoxam in black gram seeds at Limit of Quantification (LOQ) of 0.05 mg kg-1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The survey conducted during kharif 2018 and 2019 in rice crop to assess the biodiversity of predators revealed 37 species from 17 families belonging to six insect orders and 13 species of spiders under twelve genera under eight families. Spiders, coccinellids, damselflies and dragonflies were noticed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fruit flies belonging to tribe Dacini are pertinent pests of horticultural crops in Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Australasian Oceanian region. They pose enormous threats to fruit and vegetable production throughout the world, causing both quantitative and qualitative losses. Ninety two species of dacine fruit flies (28 endemic, 30.43% endemism) belonging to three genera, viz. Bactrocera Macquart (51 species, 17 endemic, 33.33% endemism), Dacus Fabricius (10 species, 3 endemic, 30.0% endemism), and Zeugodacus Hendel (31 species, 8 endemic, 25.80% endemism), and 19 subgenera have been listed from India. Of these, nine endemic species, viz. Bactrocera (Bactrocera) andamanensis, B. (B.) blairiae, B. (B.) curtivitta, B. (B.) patula, B. (B.) ranganathi, B. (Calodacus) harrietensis, Dacus (Mellesis) insulosus, Zeugodacus (Zeugodacus) fuscoalatus, Z. (Z.) havelockiae are known only from Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The current understanding of the morphology of the tribe, together with data on their biology, habitat associations, and distribution combine presents a picture of the phylogenetic relationships within the group. Besides, the knowledge of biology and behaviour of dacine species suggests that there is a close relationship between the fly species and their host plants which involves adult's feeding, host recognition, courtship and mating, oviposition, larval feeding and bacteria associations. In the present paper notes on subgeneric classification of Dacini, their distribution, endemism, relative occurrence of different taxa, phylogeny, host associations, pest status, male lures and bacterial associations have been added. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]