Relationship between morphological characters of different aubergine cultivars and fruit infestation by Leucinodes orbonalis Guenee

Response of different aubergine cultivars against brinjal shoot and fruit borer (leucinodes orbonalis guenee.) was evaluated at national agriculture research centre,islamabad during 2007-08 and 2008-09. the results reflected different levels of infestation in all cultivars by the pest. cultivar naeelam showed maximum fruit infestation (58.60 and 48.09%) followed by black long (47.93 and 33.31%),while minimum was observed in nirala with 24.75 and 21.57% fruit infestation during 2007-08 and 2008-09,respectively. similarly,shoot infestation was found maximum in naeelam (43.15 and 33.75%) followed by kanha-091 (37.72 and 28.73 %) and nirala was found to be least attacked by the pest showing 19.27 and 15.81% shoot infestation during 2007-08 and 2008-09,respectively. the correlation of different morphological plant characters with fruit infestation indicated very strong and negative correlation between fruit infestation and leaf trichomes,stem thickness and stem hair density. a negatively significant correlation was found between fruit infestation and plant height (r = - 0.716),crown hair density (r = - 0.672) while the correlations of leaf hair density (r = - 0.623),and leaf area (r = - 0.613),was also significant and negative but not so strong. there was positive correlation with fruit yield (q/acre) and positive and non significant correlation with number of primary branches/plant with r-value 0.661and 0.319,respectively.