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ABSTRACT
With the help of life table construction, which derives the net-reproductive rate, mean time of generation and the survivorship curve, one can classify the insects into pest or as non-pest. This paper is an attempt to bring diversity information of the general pest and non-pest group of insects on Musa spp. to a broader audience and examine it in the context of related research. Pests on Musa spp. (banana and plantain) can cause serious damage to its fruit (scales, thrips, aphids, caterpillars, beetles and fruit flies), leaf (grasshoppers, aphids, lacewings, mites, scales, thrips, moths/caterpillars, bugs and whiteflies), pseudostem (weevils and lepidopteran stalk borers), rhizome (beetles, weevils, mealybugs and termites), and can transmit important plant pathogens (aphids transmit banana bunchy top virus; mealybugs and whiteflies favour the growth of ascomycetes fungi). The non-pest group of insects associated with Musa spp. are, generally some of the honeybees and ants. In the current study, among the major group of insects associated with Musa spp. of Indo-Pacific region (93 species of pests and 25 species of non-pests) the most common ones are described and discussed on their ‘pest’ status.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge financial support of this study by the Kerala State Council for Science Technology and Environment and UGC-D.S. Kothari cell.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Competing interest
I declare that the authors have no competing interests as defined by this publishing group, or other interests that might be perceived to influence the review and discussions reported in this article.