International Journal of Entomology Research

Authors
Arunima Choudhury, Jayashree Das

Abstract
India is the hub of agriculture where more than half of its population depends on it for their livelihood. From food crops like wheat, rice, vegetables to cash crops like cotton, jute, etc., India is one of the major players in the agricultural sector worldwide. However, due to the invasion of pests, every year a major portion of crops gets damaged. The survey aimed at identifying the major pests infesting vegetable crops grown in Kahikuchi area, Azara located at the outskirts of Guwahati, Assam. Two approaches were used to catch the pests at different stages of their life cycles, namely, hand capture for wingless or larval insects and hand net for flying ones. Further, a light microscope and taxonomy keys were used to identify them. To gather the insect pests, random sampling technique was applied over the agricultural field region. The study period was from mid-February to end of May in which Rabi crops are being grown. During the survey, it was discovered that 21 host vegetable crops were being infested by more than 20 insect pest species belonging to 21 genera, five insect orders, and 12 insect families.