Insect Pests of Arid Vegetable Crops: Practical Manual for Field Identification and Damage Symptoms

 Arid vegetables are becoming popular for nutritional and health security point of view as they are excellent sources of minerals,
proteins, vitamins, antioxidants and photochemical. Presently India is the second largest producer of vegetables next to China with a total production of 156.32mt from an area of 8.99m ha during 2011-12. The average productivity is only 17.39 t/ha which is very less in comparison to many other countries. The vegetable crops like watermelon/mateera (Citrullus lanatus), kachri (Cucumis callosus), snap melon/phoot/ kakadi (Cucumis melo var. momordica), long melon/Kakri (Cucumis melo var. utilissimus),  round  melon/tinda
  (Praecitrullus fistulosus),  cluster  bean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba), bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), ridge gourd (Luffa acutangula), etc. have great potential in arid pockets area of country because they are well adapted to existing adverse climatic conditions and possess unprecedented ability to withstand against stresses like moisture stress, high soil pH and load of
pests and diseases. Snap melon is good source of carbohydrate (3.0%), protein (0.3%), fat (0.1%) and vitamin A (265 IU) and minerals (0.4%). It is much liked by the people suffering from sugar related disorders. Kachri  contains carbohydrate (7.45%),
protein (0.28%), fat (1.28%), fibre (1.21%), vitamin C (29.8 mg) and iron (0.18 mg).It is one of the important components of the delicious vegetable popularly known as Panchkuta  in the desert districts of north-western India. The insect pests inflict crop losses to the tune of 40 per cent in vegetable production. The  main  pests  of  vegetable  crops  are  red  pumpkin  beetle, Aulacophora foveicollis (Lucas);  fruity  fly, Bactrocera  cucurbitae  (Coquillet);  leaf  miner, Liriomyza trifolii; pod borer, Helicoverpa armigera  (Hubner), white flies, Bemisia tabaci ; thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis; shoot and fruit borer, Leucinodes orbonalis (Guenee); Hadda beetle, Epilachna viginctioctopunctata (Fabricius); aphids, Aphis gossypii (Glover) and ash weevil, Myllocerus subfasciatus. The cucurbit fruit fly (B. cucurbitae Coquillett)  has  been  the  most  prominent  pest  over  the  last  several decades in India. Depending on the environmental conditions and susceptibility of the  crop  species,  the  extent  of  losses  varies  between  30  to  100%.  The  field experiments  on  assessment  of  losses  caused  by  cucurbit  fruit  fly  in  different cucurbits been reported 28.7 - 59.2, 24.7 - 40.0, 27.3 - 49.3, 19.4 - 22.1, and 0 - 26.2% yield losses in pumpkin, bitter gourd, bottle gourd, cucumber, and sponge gourd, respectively. Considering previously reported, it is apparent that >50% of the cucurbits are either partially or totally damaged by fruit flies and are unsuitable for human consumption.