3. GENETIC RESOURCES AND BIOSYSTEMATICS
3.2 BIOSYSTEMATICS AND IDENTIFICATION SERVICES
Summer Squash: Thirty-five open-pollinated contrasting genotypes (green, orange, yellow, creamy white) were purified and maintained.
Onion (Long day): Forty advanced breeding lines of long day onion (red, yellow, white) were purified and maintained at ICAR-IARI RS, Katrain.
Temperate flowers: About 50 cultivars and five species of Lilium, 22 species/varieties of Iris, 20 varieties of dahlia, 9 varieties of Alstroemeria, 100 breeding lines of gladiolus, 20 lines of ornamental kale, 15 genotype of Eustoma and other bulbous crops like, torch lily, wattsonia, canna, Amaryllis, crinum, Freesia, wild tulip, tithonia, tuberous begonia, cyclamen, zinger lily, Lycoris, primula, primrose, temperate orchids and some wild ornamentals are being maintained and used for crop improvement programme.
3.2 BIOSYSTEMATICS AND
surveys. More than 20,000 specimens were collected and more than 700 field visuals on the various life stages and adults could be documented.
Coleoptera: A new species, Lanelateranda manensis sp.
nov.was described from the Little Andaman Island located in the Andaman group of Islands, India.
Lanelater Arnett is a new record for Andaman Islands.
The new species differs from its congeners being much shiny, covered with longer golden yellow setae, slightly convex pronotum, and the median lobe of genitalia abruptly tapering near distal 1/3rd which is unique to this species. The adults of L. andamanensis sp. nov. resemble L.attonitus (Candeze,1874), in body shape and coloration of setae, but differs from it by the absence of spots on frons, pronotum not convex in middle and shallow groove at the base of prosternal spine. Genitalia of the new species is similar to L.
scutopentagonus Vats & Kashyap, 1993, L. glabrosus Vats
& Kashyap, 1993, L. fuscipes (Fabricius, 1775) and L.
cinereus (Candeze, 1857) in having median lobe slightly longer than parameres. However, it differs from them in not having a weak subapical tooth, and the median lobe abruptly tapering near distal 1/3rd, and in having a slight bent near the distal 1/3rd, which is present only in the new species. L. scutopentagonus differs from the new species in having much narrower body shape, and surface densely covered with setae, and prosternal spine without a longitudinal groove at base; L. glabrosus and L. fuscipes differ by more convex and glabrous body surface, in addition to these the tip of median lobe of genitalia is round in L. fuscipes and truncated
in L. glabrosus. Further, the new species is distinct from those in body plane and coloration of setae. The existing checklist was modified to include all the 20 species reported till date from Indian subcontinent.
A survey of radish fields in outskirts of Delhi was conducted to diagnose a new pest attack during March, 2019. The pest was identified as Phyllotretas triolata (Fab.) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). About 4-5 adult beetles were observed on each leaf of the plant at Palla in Haryana and Mayur Vihar in Delhi. Symptoms and stages of the pest were documented in detail.
Hemiptera: The phylogeny of the Pseudosubhimalus were investigated using of two different data sets, including 91 taxa and 3853 aligned nucleotide positions from the histone H3, 28S rDNA (D2 & D9_10 region).
The results suggest the placement of genus in the tribe Ciacadulini, as it was clustered with Cicadulini genera.
Relationships between genera of the Cicadulini were strongly supported and leads placement to tribe Cicadulini from Athysanini. Genus Pseudosubhimalus Ghauri was revised, and a new species P. trilobatus sp.
nov. from Himachal Pradesh: Katrain was described from Indian subcontinent and deposited to National Pusa Collection, IARI, New Delhi.
A new species Hishimonusadi sp. nov. (Arunachal Pradesh: Pasighat) is described and illustrated from India. A modified checklist and annotated key has been provided for the all the 25 species reported till now from Indian sub-continent. Two new species of
Pest identified as Phyllotreta striolata (Fab.) (Coleptera: Chrysomelidae) at Palla in Haryana and Mayur Vihar in Delhi
the bamboo-feeding leafhopper genus Flatfronta, F.
dibangisp. nov. (Arunachal Pradesh: Basar) and F.
uttarasp. nov. (Uttarakhand: Pantnagar) have been described and illustrated from India. A checklist and a key to known species of the genus has also been also provided. Types are deposited in the National Pusa Collection (NPC), ICAR-IARI, New Delhi.
Plant hopper Cemus sauteri (Muir) was recorded for the first time from Bilaspur (Himachal Pradesh), Raichur, Bidar (Karnataka). Earlier this species was recorded from China, Japan, Fiji and Srilanka. Plant hopper Cemus zhitus Kuoh was recorded for the first time from from Bilaspur (Himachal Pradesh), Raichur, Bidar (Karnataka), Hawalbag (Uttarkhand) and Malkhed forest (Maharashtra). Earlier this species was recorded in China.
Hymenoptera: Genus Philotrypesis with 14 reported species is the most diverse fig wasp genus in India. Present studies resulted in the transfer of Philoverdanceravii Priyadarsanan, 2000 to genus Philotrypesis and therefore a new combination, i.e.
Philotrypesisravii comb. nov. was established. Three new species, viz. Philotrypesis nigra sp. nov., P. robusta sp. nov. and P. viridis sp. nov. were described based on both male and female specimens. While the first
one was collected from fruits of Ficus benjamina L.from Arunachal Pradesh, the latter two were reared from F.
amplissima Smith. from New Delhi. Additionally the previously unknown male of Philotrypesis tridentata Joseph, 1954 was also described. Thus currently 18 species of this genus are known from India. Further to differentiate both sexes of all Philotrypesis species reported from India an identification key for 18 species (including the new species) was formulated and which is so far the most comprehensive species level diagnostic key for the genus at global level. Further the host fig association of the Indian Philotrypesis species and incidence of male polymorphism was also studied.
Lepidoptera: Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) an important aromatic plant is cultivated worldwide. For the first time, a Perilla leaf moth, Pyrausta panopealis (Walker, 1859) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) was found to cause economic damage to Basil in India. The identity of the pest species was determined through morphological and molecular techniques.
The fall army worm Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) a destructive invasive insect pest of cereal crops native to American continent was recorded for the first time from Nepal (Nawalpur district) during May 2019 in collaboration with Nepal researchers.
Diptera: Studies on the phytophagous genus Eumerus (Diptera—Syrphidae) was continued. Redescription, molecular characterization and phylogeny of Eumeru srufoscutellatus (Diptera: Syrphidae) infecting riverlily (Crinum vivparum) and E. figurans infecting ginger was completed. Molecular phylogeny of E. rufoscutellatus was constructed (based on Maximum Likelihood method using MEGA7) to know its relation with E. fumeralis and E. strigatus which infest onion in other counties. It was found that E. rufoscatellatus did not cluster with the above two species group.
Eristalinustaeniops (Wiedemann) was recorded from India from Palampur, Himachal Pradesh for the first time. It was redescribed with additional features of male genitalia. Further phylogenetic analysis of seven species of genus Eristalinus was completed.
A-H. Habitus of Flatfronta: A-D. Flatfronta dibangi sp. nov. A Habitus dorsal, B.
Hibitus Lateral C. Head with pronotum. D. Facr; F. uttara sp. nov.: E. Habitus dorsal F. Habitus latcral, G. Head with pronotum, H. Face
Intensive surveys were conducted to record the important native pollinators for radish seed production in Kullu Valley. Surveys conducted during flowering season recorded 32 species of flower visiting insects belonging to 5 orders and 14 families from seed production farms of IARI Regional Station Katrain.
Of these, 11 species belonged to Hymenoptera, 15 to Diptera, 3 to Lepidoptera, 2 to Coleoptera and 1 to Hemiptera. Among the recorded flower visitors most efficient pollinator will be identified after studying flower visiting frequency and seed setting percentage due to single visit of pollinating species during the subsequent flowering seasons.
3.2.3 Nematode biosystematics
Identification of new species and diversity analysis:
Nematode infested olive root samples received from six districts of Rajasthan and examination of root and perineal pattern study of mature females from each sample revealed infection of Meloidogyne javanica.
However, the perineal patterns showed considerable variations. Samples analyzed from five districts of Jharkhand and 58 nematode genera belonging to 11 orders were identified; Tylenchida (13), Dorylaimida (12), Aphelenchida (2), Araeolaimida (6), Cephalobida (10), Chromadorida (1), Diplogastrida (1), Enoplida (2), Mononchida (3), Rhabditida (7), and Triplonchida (1). Among Tylenchida, the most abundant genus was
Meloidogyne; other important genera were Pratylenchus, Rotylenchulus, Hirschmanniella, Helicotylenchus, Tylenchorhynchus, Quinisulcius, Criconemoides, Tylenchus, Filenchus and Psilenchus. Predatory nematodes belonging to the Mononchida include genera Lotonchus, Mononchus and Mylonchulus were less abundant in the rice ecosystem of Jharkhand.
A new species of a predatory nematode Mylonchulus tuberosei sp. n. (Nematoda: Mononchida) is identified based of morphological and morphometrics studies This new species was collected from rhizosphere of tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa L.) from Mr. Radhey Shyam’s field of village Anwarpur, district Hapur (Uttar Pradesh).
Another new species of the genus Oscheius was described as O. indicusn. sp. on the basis of morphological and molecular data. The species was characterized by females having a medium-sized and slender body, four incisures each in the lateral fields with three minute warts, long rectum, nine pairs of papillae, a prominent double-flapped epipytigma on vulval opening, presence of open leptoderan bursa and crochet needle-shaped spicules. Morphological observations and molecular phylogenetic analysis suggested that O. indicus n. sp. was sufficiently different from any known species and was therefore proposed as a new species within the insectivora group.
Mylonchulus tuberosei sp. n.A – Entire female; B – Pharyngeal region; C – Feeing apparatus; D –Vulval opening; E – Female reproductive system; F – Cardia; G - Tail
Variability among Indian populations of Heterodera cajani: The cyst forming nematode, Heterodera cajani Koshy 1967 is a serious pest of pigeon pea in India. It infects several crops which include pigeonpea, soybean, mung, cowpea etc. Taxonomic studies were undertaken on 11 populations of H. cajani collected from 8 pulse- growing states of India viz. Haryana (Hisar, Bhiwani), Karnataka (Gulbarga), Madhya Pradesh (Indore-1 and Indore-2 infecting pigeon pea and soybean), Maharashtra (Akola), New Delhi (Delhi), Tamilnadu (Coimbatore and Pasur), Telangana (Hyderabad) and Uttar Pradesh (Kanpur). The Discriminate analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis, derived
from Euclidean distance coefficients, Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering (AHC) dissimilarity by Ward’s method, based on morphometric characters of cysts, J2s and males from 11 populations gave phenological dendrogram with three categories (i) Cluster 1 comprising of Delhi, Hisar, Kanpur, Indore, Gulbarga, Pasur and Indore and (ii) Cluster 2 Coimbatore and Hyderabad and (iii) Cluster 3 Bhiwani population
Further, statistical analysis based on molecular characterization employing ITS, D2D3 and CO1 sequences of 11 H. cajani populations revealed a low nucleotide diversity and low-frequency of polymorphism among these populations.
Molecular phylogenetic relationship of Oscheius indicus n. sp. (highlighted in bold) inferred using 28S D2/D3 extension region of 28 rDNA gene. Orange and green shaded boxes indicate insectivora and dolichura group, respectively.
Relationship among populations of Heteroderacajanion the basis of Agglomerative hierarchical clustering