Jasmine is a commercially important flower crop in India and utilized in decoration, religious rituals, perfume industry and so forth. Insect pest damage leads to significant yield reduction as well as quality of jasmine flowers. To restrain the damage, the stake holders are using huge quantity of insecticides which pose several problems in the ecosystem. India has rich diversity and jasmine also has several species and genotypes. Assessing insect pest damage on different genotypes of commonly cultivated Jasminum sambac and its relation with flower morphological traits is an important criteria for development of new resistant varieties and cultivars against flower feeding insects. This will lead to decrease in pesticide spraying. A study was taken up to screen 31accessions of Jasminum sambac (J. s. Acc) against flower feeding insects. Three major flower feeding insects viz., bud worm Hendecasis duplifascialis Hampson, blossom midge Contarinia maculipennis Felt and flower thrips Frankliniella scultzei Trybom were recorded during the period. The incidence of budworm was highest in J. s. Acc. 3 (13.99%) and lowest in J. s. Acc. 16 (2.88%) whereas blossom midge damage was highest in J. s. Acc. 13 (14.24%) and lowest in J. s. Acc. 20 (4.94%). J. s. Acc. 26 had the highest flower thrips infestation (3.33 thrips/flower cluster) and the lowest in J. s. Acc. 15 (1.52 thrips/flower cluster). The present study affirmed that few morphological factors viz., diameter of flower bud, total bud length, bud stalk length and number of petals influenced the damage and susceptibility to flower feeders in jasmine genotypes.

Jasmine, insect pests, flower feeders, genotypes, damage, floral parameters

All the 31 J. sambac accessions screened in the study recorded damage by three flower feeding insects but with significant difference in the level of infestation. The entries also showed significant variation in flower morphology. The major morphological traits of flowers that interferes the susceptibility to pests are diameter of the bud, total bud length and bud stalk length and number of petals. J. s. Acc. 32 was noticed with less infestation and considerable resistant to budworm incidence (3.14%), whereas the incidence of blossom midge (6.70%) and thrips (2.18 thrips/flower cluster) were also low. The accession J. s. Acc. 2 is susceptible to budworm (11.90%), blossom midge (10.05%) and thrips (2.22 thrips/flower cluster).

Aswini V., Soundararajan R.P., Ganga M., Elaiyabharathi T. and Kannan M. (2023). Influence of Floral Traits of Jasminum sambac L. Genotypes on Damage by Flower Feeding Insects. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(8): 22-27.