Evaluating the Effectiveness of Different Traps for Monitoring the Invasive Leaf Miner, Liriomyza huidobrensis on Potato Crop (Solanum tuberosum) in India

Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.; Solanaceae) are one of the world's four major food crops. However, it is currently threatened by the invasive, most devastating leaf miner, Liriomyza huidobrensis (Blanchard, 1926) (Diptera: Agromyzidae). Potato plays a significant role in the Indian economy. During the year 2020-21, the outbreak of this pest was observed in the potato growing regions of the Nilgiris district. During the year 2021, two experiments were carried out at two different locations of Nilgiris district in order to monitor the pest incidence for timely application of management practices. In this study, the effectiveness of different kinds of traps viz., sticky traps (yellow, white, blue) and bottle traps with casein and protein hydrolysate were tested. The findings demonstrate that of the various traps tested for their efficacy in attracting the leaf miner, L. huidobrensis, the yellow sticky trap was more effective in attracting adult leaf miner flies, with mean trap catches of 40.49 and 36.64 adult flies/ 10 cm2 areas at Kotagiri and Ooty, respectively. The peak population of leaf miners was observed in the last week of April (45.67 adult flies/ 10 cm2 areas) in Ooty and the third week of June (52.33 adult flies/ 10 cm2 areas) in Kotagiri. The correlation investigation found that the trap catches were significantly positively correlated with maximum temperature, diurnal variation (DV), and growing day degrees (GDD). Multiple regression equation was also developed, where the abiotic factors contributed 46.1% and 65.5% to the Liriomyza leaf miner population fluctuation in the potato ecosystem. Yellow sticky trap can be used as an efficient tool to monitor the incidence of L. huidobrensis population. The data obtained may also be used in projecting their future population by adopting pest management models.