KHANNA, ANJU SUDHAKARBHARGAV, OSHIN2019-11-232019-11-232019-11http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810136038ABSTRACT The present explorations entitled ‘Seasonal abundance and management of dipteran pests noxious to Pleurotus sajor caju (Jacq.) P. Kumm’ was planned to apprise with the faunistic alliance of oyster mushrooms with sciarid flies (Order Diptera) prevalent in abundance in mushroom farms. These tiny pests were randomly collected from the cropping rooms of the Mushroom house of UHF, Nauni, Solan and on the basis of their morphological features, were identified as Bradysia tritici (Coquillet). The adults of these flies were dark greyish tiny insects with elongated abdomen, long legs and a pair of wings having distinct Y- shaped pattern. Morphometric studies revealed female flies to be larger and more in number than their male counter parts, former having longer life span of 3-5 days. The adult flies exhibited phototactic behaviour as they were trapped on the yellow sticky traps placed near the source of light in enormous numbers and also, the bags kept on the topmost shelves receiving ample light suffered more severe insect infestation than the bags placed in the lowest shelves exposed to dim light. These flies occurred in mushroom house in varying counts during different parts of the year with their peak population in the months of September and October when average temperature ranged between 13.5 and 20.5oC. Among the four Pleurotus species screened for their susceptibility against B. tritici, all were found to be vulnerable; P. cornuopiae being the most susceptible followed by P. florida, P. ostreatusand P. sajor caju in the order of decreasing susceptibilities. The maggotsof the test fly were voracious feeders of Pleurotus spawn, mycelium as well as lamellae of sporopcarps and incurred huge quantitative as well as qualitative losses, thus warranting the employment of management tactics which essentially needed to be crop friendly owing to the unique growing technology and extreme sensitivity of the mushrooms. Three experiments on bio-management of B. tritici involving use of plant extracts, insect growth regulators and organic bioproducts were laid to manage the pest in oyster mushroom. Among the plant extracts, NSKE and Neemkavach at five per cent and castor leaf extract at two per cent were found to be the most effective against the test insect. Inclusion of IGRs in the cropping bags improved the mushroom production significantly by curbing the proper development of maggots; Teflubenzuron, Novaluron and Diflubenzuron being more effective than Lufenuron. The test organic bioproducts were not as effective. Only suitable product was dashgavya, which when used at ten per cent not only reduced the insect population but also improved the mushroom yields.ennullThesis