Controlling this pest is one of the biggest challenges faced by the agriculture scientists of the country for the past four years. Its impact on crops, mainly cotton, has been devastating, making the scientists wonder how the pest became so rampant when it had no previous record. They, therefore, decided to crack what has come to known as the mealybug phenomenon.

When a group of scientists at the Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR) here, led by V S Nagrale, conducted a thorough molecular study of the deadly pest, they concluded in December 2008 that the mealybug specie was an exotic (alien) pest that was originally noticed in America. There were, however, not many takers for this.

B ut a recent paper by Aligarh Muslim University taxonomist (an expert in identification of species) Mohammad Hayat, too, has confirmed the finding. The paper is already online on the prestigious Biosystematica journal published from the US.

Hayat mentions that the exotic nature of the wrecker mealybug species Phenacoccus solenopsis has been confirmed by two expert scientists R K Varshney (Aligarh) and D J Williams (London) who have said that the species did not originally belong to India.

India, incidentally, has its own mealybug species called pink hibiscus mealy bug (Maconellicoccus hirsutus), but its impact on cotton was insignificant.

Hayat has also established that the parasitoid, Aenasius, which he studied, is also alien to India.

But why is it so important to find out if the pest is an exotic species? “Because it has to be officially declared as an exotic pest to be able to come out with a pest management regimen for it,” says CICR Acting Director and an award-winning cotton scientist Keshav Kranthi.

... contd.