Settlement behavior of lac insect, Kerria lacca crawlers
Lakshmi Kanta Hazarika, Purnima Das, Rituraj Saikia and Athar Nishat Islam
Initial settlement density of the crawlers of lac insect, Kerria lacca Kerr (Hemiptera: Tachardidae) in different cardinal directions of the host plant branches was examined for two consecutive crops of Kusumi strain, summer and winter crop, during 2016-17. For the summer crop, initial settlement density towards west (31.2/sq. cm) and south (34.6/sq. cm) was significantly low as compared to that towards north (97.0/sq. cm) and east (89.2/sq. cm). For winter crop, highest settlement density was observed towards north (91.8/sq. cm) which differed significantly from that in the west direction (57.2/sq. cm). In case of horizontal branches, initial settlement density in the lower side of the branch was much higher (92.6/sq. cm and 77.2/sq. cm) then the upper side (26.8/sq. cm and 25.6/sq. cm) for both summer and winter crops, respectively. The observed difference in the cardinal direction might be due to shade preference characteristic of the insect.