Abstract

Author:
Md. Jewel Alam, Sadia Rahaman, Sheikh Nahid Hasan, Abida Munsura, Dhipak Kumer Paul

Doi: 10.26480/trab.02.2025.82.86

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Maize (Zea max L.) is a second cereal crop in Bangladesh. Maize aphid, Rhopalosiphum maidis (Fitch) is serious pest of maize in Bangladesh as well as world. The study of the biology of this aphid is significant to know its whole behavior, which helps to find alternative control methods for aphid management in the maize field of Bangladesh. An experiment was conducted in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) at laboratory of the Department of Entomology, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Mymensingh, Bangladesh during the period of January to March 2022 to the study the biology and its morphometric characters. BARI hybrid maize-09 variety was used as experimental crop and the research was carried at laboratory with define conditions (Temp. 27⁰C, RH 75% and 14L:10D). The results of the present study revealed that R. maidis on maize had a life cycle of 14.90±0.63 days, adult longevity of 17.0±0.77 days, life span of 20.14±0.96 days, fecundity, and rate of reproduction 35.44±0.77 offspring per female and 3.08±0.24 offspring per female per day, respectively. Nymphs developed through four instars and transformed into adults. 4th instar of nymph took more time (3.53±0.44 days) than others instar. Besides, the pre-reproduction, reproduction, and postreproduction periods of aphid on maize was 2.56±0.32, 12.15±0.75 and 2.33±0.34, respectively. However, body color was light green to deep, and the tips of head and legs were darker than body. The length and width of different nymphal stages of R. maidis were: 0.94±0.14 mm and 0.39 ±0.23 mm (1st instar); 1.30± 0.75 mm and 0.55± 0.16 mm (2nd instar); 1.55±0.30 mm and 0.66±0.06 mm (3rd instar); 1.96±0.70 mm and 0.80±0.10 mm (4th instar), respectively. On the contrary, the adult was yellowish green to dark olive green or bluish green and measured the length and width of adult was: 2.06±0.90 mm and 0.88±0.08 mm (male); 2.15±0.74 mm and 0.95±0.11 mm (female), respectively. So, morphometric traits (Nymphal period, hatching period, reproductive duration, fecundity, and longevity) were influenced by environmental temperature, relative humidity, food habit, and climatic condition as evident in the study. These biological characters were significantly varied by different environmental conditions. From the study, therefore, it could be concluded that these bionomics information will be helpful to take effective measures for controlling maize aphid considering loss of production, cost effectiveness and environmental issues.