author(s)
Rajat Deshwal, SK Sachan, Visvash Vaibhav, Nitin Kumar and Ankit Kumar

abstract
The present investigation was conducted to study the effect of abiotic factors on occurrence of yellow stem borer, Scirpophaga incertulas Walker in basmati rice in western plain zone of Uttar Pradesh during Kharif 2017 and 2018. Observations of S. incertulas infestation were recorded at weekly interval, 15 days after transplanting till harvesting. The peak period of pooled maximum dead hearts (12.60%) of both cropping seasons was recorded in 36^th standard week. Thereafter, infestation declined gradually, but again increased at reproductive stage of crop and the pooled maximum white ears (11.95%) infestation was recorded during both the seasons at 41^th standard week. The correlation matrix between infestation of yellow stem borer with weather parameters indicated that there was a positive correlation with maximum temperature (r= 0.15), minimum temperature (r= 0.07), evening relative humidity (r= 0.15) and rainfall (r= 0.17) and negative correlation with morning relative humidity, with the dead hearts and white ear heads caused by yellow stem borer.