Field Screening of Some Brinjal Genotypes for Resistance to Major Insect Pests

A field experiment was conducted to study the response of 10 brinjal genotypes against the major insect pests of brinjal. The study revealed that the genotype HE-103-1 was best in reducing the whitefly population (3.48/ leaf) and HE-101-4 proved superlative against leafhopper population (0.80/ leaf). Considering the shoot and fruit damage, the genotype HE-101-3 proved to be tolerant to Leucinodes orbonalis whereas BR-112 was recorded as highly susceptible. Further, the study on morphological characters revealed that in different genotypes, the length of leaf varied from 9.4 to 16.5 cm but not found associated with the sucking insect pests while the leaf width in different genotypes ranges from 4.7 to 13.6 cm and shows negative significant correlation (r = -0.737) with the whitefly population. Fruit length among different genotype studied varied from 6.4 to 19.3cm, while the maximum fruit diameter of 7.9 and 7.4 cm was recorded in genotypes H-8 and BR 112, respectively and minimum was recorded from HE-101-3 (3.3 cm). The fruit diameter was found highly significant and positively correlated with the fruit infestation by L. orbonalis. Among different genotypes studied, the pericarp thickness was also found positively and significantly correlated with the fruit infestation.