Course Contents

THEORY A general account including classification of insect orders: Collembola, Orthoptera, Dictyoptera, Isoptera, Hemiptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, Coleoptera. Only diagnostic characters of the remaining insect orders: Thysanura, Diplura, Protura, Ephemeroptera, Odonata, Plecoptera, Grylloblattoidea, Phasmida, Dermaptera, Embioptera, Zoraptera, Psocoptera, Mallophaga, Siphunculata, Thysanoptera, Neuroptera, Meco- ptera, Tricoptera, Siphonaptera, Strepsiptera, Insects of economic importance. Brief account of biological control, chemical control and integrated pest management: common sampling techniques in insect pest management, concept of economic levels, economic damage and economic boundary, economic injury level and economic threshold. Household pests and their management. Knowledge of Pests of cotton, rice, sugarcane. PRACTICALS Collection, preservation and identification of insects upto families (except for the identification upto species of a few pests of great economic importance), with the help of keys/literature.

Course Learning Outcomes

The students will learn to identify the pest during damaging to the crop; Students will understand methods of population estimation of the pest and application of different control strategies.