author(s)
Vijaykumar N Ghante, Arunkumar C Hosamani and Vikas Kulkarni

abstract
Leaf hoppers, Amrasca biguttula biguttula Ishida (Homoptera: Cicadellidae) are the important sucking pests of sunflower in India. Both nymphs and adults suck the plant sap and their severe infestation leads to curling of leaves and the characteristic “hopper burn” symptom. Leaf hopper infestation reduces the oil yield. Field screening of 28 sunflower germplsma revealed that six of the germplasms reacted as resistant (GMU-25,339,504,922,570 and GP9-472-4-13), 16 germplasms as moderately resistant (GMU-1, 4, 116, 405, 595, 669, 703, 782, 914, 1029, 243, 327, 556, 696, 776 and AKSFI-46-2,) and six as susceptible (GMU-255, 713, 795, 1093, 112 and 343) to leafhopper pest. Total soluble sugars (r =0.243, 0.933), reducing sugars (r = 0.143, 0.736), non reducing sugars (r =0.289, 0.882) and leaf nitrogen (r =0.194, 0.904) showed positive relationship with number of leafhopper pests and their damage. Phenols (r = -0.187, -0.748) and tannins(r = -0.080, -0.821) showed negative relationship with number and damage of leafhopper pests. Hence, these resistant screened lines may be used for further use in breeding programme and integrated pest managenent programme in sunflower.