Laboratory assessment of repellency and insecticide efficacy of some plant extracts against adults of red pumpkin beetle (Aulacophora foveicollis Lucas)

Present studies were conducted to assess the repellency (3,6,9,12 and 15 hour post-treatment) and insecticidal efficacy (24,48,72 and 96 hours post-treatment) of ethanolic-extracts of azadirachta (a.) indica,eucalyptus (e.) camodulensis,melia (m.) azedarach,citrullus (c.) colocynthis at 5,10 and 15% concentrations against aulacophora (a.) foveicollis lucas (chrysomelidae: coleoptera) adults under laboratory conditions with the aim to explore alternatives to synthetic insecticides. a. indica and m. azadarech exhibited 76.7 and 69.1% repellency (repellency-class-iv),whereas c. colocynthis and e. camaldulensis demonstrated 36.9 and 28.0% repellency (repellency-class-ii),respectively. extract of a. indica at all concentrations and m. azadarech extract at 15 and 10% concentrations; whereas,that of both the extracts at 15 hours post-treatment interval performed better amplifying >70% repellency. lc50 ranged between 6.3-28.0,7.2-31.9,7.8-33.5 and 12.7-47.4%; whereas,rc50 fluctuated between 0.77-2.1,5.9-7.4,2.2-5.4 and 9.6-33.6% for a. indica,m. azadarech,c. colocynthis and e. camaldulensis,respectively,being higher for 24 hours and lower for 96 hours. similarly,et50 reached 56.0-108.0,57.5-109.9,57.1-110.5 and 90.4-157.1 hours and rt50 ranged between 5.6-8.6,5.8-21.3,5.6-34.2 and 82.4-121.9 hours for a. indica,m. azadarech,c. colocynthis and e. camaldulensis,respectively,being significantly longer for 5% and shorter for 15% concentration. it is suggested from these results that more repellent and insecticide action of a. indica,m. azadarech,c. colocynthis (1.5-2.0 times higher) than e. camaldulensis can be used in ipm program for this beetle.