author(s)
Muntaha Qamar and Masarrat Haseeb

abstract
A comparative study on population dynamics of Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata and H. dodecastigma was carried out for two consecutive years (2015 and 2016) on three vegetable crops i.e. brinjal, bitter guard and tomato and one medicinal crop i.e. winter cherry with recommended fertilizers and cultural practices in 3.5 x 3m plots replicated 9 times, in an experimental field of Department of Plant Protection, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. Observations were taken on 4 randomly selected plants from each plot. Adults and grubs of these two species were found feeding upon early to late growth stage of all crops tested. Results from these studies revealed that, in both the study year the highest population of adults and grubs were recorded on brinjal followed by the rest of the tested host plants in the month of July and August. The weather parameters i.e. temperature (29.37ºC), relative humidity (83.21%) and rainfall (70mm) found favorable for the adults to reach its peak density on all tested host plants. From the present study, it can be concluded that host plants and abiotic factors influenced the temporal abundance of this species. Therefore, it is necessary to consider these factors in the study of population dynamics of Henosepilachna spp., which will be helpful in devising a successful and better strategy to timely manage the pest on various crops in Aligarh agro-climatic conditions.