author(s)
Bismillah Shah, Imtiaz Ali Khan, Ashraf Khan, Mir Manzar Ud Din, Muhammad Adnan, Khwaja Junaid, Syed Rizwan Ali Shah, Maid Zaman, Nazeer Ahmad, Rasheed Akbar, Walija Fayaz, Inayat-ur-Rahman

abstract
The present study aimed to determine physio-morphic basis of resistance in maize cultivars against insect pests at Agronomy Research Farm (ARF), The University of Agriculture, Peshawar (UAP), Pakistan during 2015. Seven maize cultivars, namely Azam, Jalal, Babar, Pahari, Iqbal, Climax 3055 and Climax 30M62 were tested. The results of physio-morphic plant characters of maize cultivars revealed that plant height ranged from 195.62–221.63 cm, stem diameter 20.16-23.84 mm, cob length 1873-24.81 cm, number of nodes plant^-1 12.39 - 13.83, number of leaves plant^-1 12.44 - 14.33, leaf trichomes density 87.01 - 102.94, leaf length 71.25-83.73 cm, leaf width 7.55-9.19 cm, thousand grains weight 192.80-282.56gm and grain yield 2644–5389 kg/ha. From the correlation matrices of physio-morphic plant characters with insect pest densities, it was noted that lower plant height, high trichomes density and more number of nodes plant^-1 contributed for resistance in maize cultivars against the insect pest attack. On the basis of lower incidence of insect pests and physio-morphic plant characteristics, all of the seven tested maize cultivars are recommended for cultivation during spring season at Peshawar.