Vol. V (4) December 2013

Page 1

This quarter saw a flurry of activity at NBAII. On 10 October, the IVMeeting of National Advisory Boardon Management of Plant GeneticResources under the Chairmanshipand Co-Chairmanship of Dr R.S.Paroda and Dr S. Ayyappan,respectively, met. There was a

programme for horticultural farmers on 22 Octoberaddressed by the Director-General Dr S. Ayyappan andDeputy Director-General (Horticulture) Dr N.K. KrishnaKumar. On 23 October, Dr S.K. Datta, Deputy Director-General (Crop Sciences), declared open the Centre forInsect Bioinformatics at NBAII. The 13th Workshop ofthe IOBC Global Working Group on Mass Rearing andQuality Assurance from 6–8 November organised by ussaw an excellent blend of ideas from India and abroadon mass rearing in biological control. On 7 December,an interface meeting between industries and NBAII sawmore than 40 entrepreneurs vying for the 12 or moreproducts of the Bureau.

In addition to these, there were two advanced trainingprogrammes on bioinformatics and biological control ofsoil arthropods. A significant number of post- graduatestudents visited the Bureau with their teachers. TheBureau always opens its doors to officials and studentsto advance their knowledge in entomology. With itscollection of nearly 30,000 insect specimens 108 liveinsect cultures, over 80 entomopathogens, insectdatabase backed by high-end supercomputing, a dynamic

molecular entomology laboratory and not forgetting ahighly knowledgeable band of dedicated scientists, thereis no better place for a student of entomology toassimilate modern insect science.

On 22 October, the Hon’ble Director-GeneralDr S. Ayyappan inaugurated our “Pollinator Garden”. A25-acre barren land has been transformed into abundantgreenery, with over 150 species of flora besides cultivatedagricultural and horticultural plants. The main pollinatingvisitors are the megachilids, formicids, xylocopids, etc.besides Apis spp.

If a new species of bird or mammal is discovered inIndia, it is quite an excitement not only in the country,but the world over. But this is commonplace in the Bureau.Sadly, with respect to insects there is no palpableexcitement in the larger context, but the Bureau goesgaga over these discoveries, as a ‘known’ insect is avital cog in the food chain that has been affectingbiodiversity and ecology (hence agriculture directly orindirectly) without we being aware of. Pertinent tomention that the volume of to-be-discovered species ofinsects number over 70,000! Our task ahead, therefore,is huge! We are indeed deeply sensitised and committedto this challenge – of course with all the goodwill andsupport of the readers of this newsletter.

My staff and I wish you a happy and very meaningfulNew Year, and hope it will be a research- and farmer-focused 2014.

Abraham VergheseDirector

Many insects still untold...

NBAII Newsletter

National Advisory Board Meeting Inauguration of ‘Pollinator Garden’ Inauguration of Bioinformatics Centre

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Some exciting new species discoveries!

The genus Mantibaria, an endoparasitoid ofMantidae (praying mantises), is represented by justthree species worldwide, viz. Mantibaria mantis, M.seefelderiana and M. solygiae. A new species,Mantibaria kerouaci sp. nov. Veenakumari &Rajmohana (Fig. 1), has now been reported for thefirst time from the Indian subcontinent.

New Research

Three new species of parasitic wasps(Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Microgastrinae) fromsouthern India have been described. Glyptapantelesclanisae Gupta (Fig. 2), a remarkable gregariousendoparasitoid, was bred from the caterpillar ofthe sphingid moth Clanis phalaris found onPongamia pinnata along with a hyperparasitoid,Eurytoma sp. Glyptapanteles trilochae Gupta (Fig. 3),was reared from parasitised caterpillar of Trilochavarians, a lepidopteran occurring on Ficus racemosa,along with a hyperparasitoid, Paraphylax sp. (Fig.4). The third species, Buluka horni Gupta (Fig. 5),was collected from solitary cocoons of anindeterminate caterpillar feeding on mango leaves.This study also confirms the host range extensionof Indian species of Glyptapanteles to Bombycidaeand Sphingidae.

Barcoding of insects

The mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase c subunit1 (COI) gene of eight varied insect species wassequenced and deposited in GenBank: Aprostocetusgala (KF817576), Amphiareus constrictus (KF817577), Sceliocerdo viatrix (KF938928), Chilocorus bangaloreans (KF938927) Apis florea (KF817578), Apiscerana indica (KF861941), Megachile anthracina(KF861940) and Teleonemia scrupulosa (KF817579).

Fig. 1: Mantibaria kerouaci: (a) Male; (b) Female

Fig. 2: Glyptapantelesclanisae

Fig. 3: Glyptapantelestrilochae

Fig. 5: Buluka horniFig. 4: Paraphylax sp.

Biocontrol field update

On the biocontrol front, the control of thepapaya mealybug is an undying success

story, for the pest pressure is kept under checkby the ever-present ‘alert’ parasitoids!. There isan interesting ecological see-saw happening. Eachtime the dreaded papaya mealybug raises its uglyhead, the ever-present parasitoids- a tiny wasp-breeds furiously to contain the pest! The story isthe same for the sugarcane woolly aphid and theeucalyptus gall wasp. My visits to Odisha andMaharashtra in December, confirmed these.When I visited Dhenkanal, about 70 km fromBhubaneswar, this quarter, it was heartening tosee that a farmer Mr S. Naik was able to controlthe sugarcane borer in about 100 ha exclusivelyby using Trichogramma chilonis and T. japonica.I must congratulate Dr B.K. Mishra, Dean, OUAT,Bhubaneswar, for spearheading biocontrolcampaign in Odisha and guiding farmers like MrNaik. Elsewhere in Maharashtra, the same couldbe said of the entomologists Dr R.V. Nakat andDr S.M. Galande of MPKV, Pune.

One important insect parasitoid we discovered thisquarter is Anagyrus amnestos a new record toIndia and is perhaps the only natural enemy tocontain the mealybug Phenacoccus madeirensis.This discovery is indeed exciting to us and shouldbe to all of you as the only way to control amealybug is through releases of natural enemies.

A.V.

(a) (b)

Odisha

NBAII Newsletter Page 3

Bioinformatics training at NBAII

Atraining programme entitled“Bioinformatics: In Vitro to In Silico

Approaches in Entomology” under theNAIP-NABG project was conducted from18–30 November 2013 at NBAII. The coursefocused on some major application areas ofbioinformatics such as computationalbiology, biological database, genomics,proteomics, gene expression, DNAbarcoding, insecticide resistance and itsmanagement, etc. Participants were alsoexposed to various molecular biology wet-lab techniques. There were guest lecturersfrom the Indian Institute of Science (IISc,Bangalore), Kuvempu University, IndianAgricultural Statistics Research Institute(IASRI, New Delhi), Apsara Innovations-Bangalore and Labindia-Mumbai. Animprovement of 80% in knowledge and skillsof the 12 participants was perceived at theend of the course. Dr T. Venkatesan,Principal Scientist, directed the course incoordination with Dr S.K. Jalali, PrincipalScientist, and Dr M. Pratheepa, Scientist(Senior Scale).

Training on entomopathogenicnematodes for managing

soil-dwellers

Fifteen front-end officers of Agricultureand Horticulture Departments from

several states underwent hands-on trainingon “Eco-friendly Management ofWhitegrubs and Other Soil ArthropodsUsing Entomopathogenic Nematodes” from6–13 December 2013 at NBAII. The traineeswere imparted both theoretical knowledgeand practical know-how. They were alsoshown commercial production andmarketing systems of entomopathogenicnematodes and other biological controlagents at two commercial companies,Multiplex and Bio-Control ResearchLaboratories (BCRL), to whom technologieswere transferred and licensed by NBAII.Five external experts and ten in-houseexperts were involved in the trainingcurriculum. Dr M. Nagesh, PrincipalScientist, and Dr Jagadeesh Patil, Scientist,organised the programme.

IOBC Workshop report

The “13th Workshop of the IOBC GlobalWG on Mass Rearing & Quality Assurance

(MRQA)” was held in Bangalore from 6–8November 2013, under the theme of“Emerging opportunities for the massproduction and quality assurance ofinvertebrates”. Seventy-five delegates from10 countries participated in the event. Theobjectives of this workshop were to addressthe concept of quality and protocols of qualityassessment, the production of invertebratesfor biological control and other emerging applications, and societal and legal issues associated withthe mass rearing and use of invertebrates for integrated pest management. Four symposia, with 32oral presentations and 16 posters, addressed the different aspects of arthropod and nematode rearingas it relates to quality assurance. Papers in these symposia served as a basis for discussion andexchange, with the final aim of expanding our awareness of the variety of applications and methodsthat utilize mass rearing of invertebrates, and improving collaboration among scientists, practitionersand regulators. Particular attention was given to the technical and socio-economic challenges facedby emerging economies in Asia and elsewhere related to the mass production, regulation and releaseof invertebrate biological control agents. Dr Chandish R. Ballal, Dr Sunil Joshi and Dr Y. Lalithawon awards for their respective presentations.

Page 4 NBAII Newsletter

Compiled and edited by: P. Sreerama Kumar & Abraham VerghesePublished by: Director, National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Insects, Hebbal, Bangalore 560 024, India

Phone: +91 80 2341 4220 l Fax: +91 80 2341 1961 l Website: www.nbaii.res.in

Printed at: Precision Fototype Services, Bangalore 560 008

Selected Publications

Schoolchildren at the`Pollinator Garden’

Around 70 pupils from a nearby highschool visited the ‘Pollinator Garden’

at the Yelahanka Campus of NBAII on 6November 2013. The children were takenaround the garden and the farm, where theysaw diverse crops in different stages ofgrowth on which they observed bees,butterflies, praying mantises, ants, beetlesand bugs at close quarters. Childrenenjoyed their trip and had a lot of innocentqueries about insects, crops and so on,which were adequately answered byDr T.M. Shivalingaswamy, In-Charge, Farm.

Gupta, A. 2013. Three new species of rearedparasitic wasps (Hymenoptera: Braconidae:Microgastrinae) from India. Zootaxa, 3701(3):365–380.

Rangeshwaran, R., Ashwitha, K., Sivakumar, G.& Jalali, S.K. 2013. Analysis of proteinsexpressed by an abiotic stress tolerantPseudomonas putida (NBAII-RPF9) isolate undersaline and high temperature conditions. CurrentMicrobiology, 67: 659–667.

Mr N. Chandrashekhar retired as the Finance andAccounts Officer of NBAII on 30 November 2013after decades of service in ICAR. Bureau staffmembers lauded his dedication andaccomplishments in the befittingly arrangedfarewell party.

Superannuation

NBAII-Industry Interface Meet held

The first-ever “NBAII-Industry Interface Meet” was successfully organised by the InstituteTechnology Management Unit (ITMU) in collaboration with the Zonal Technology

Management - Business Planning and Development (ZTM-BPD) Unit, Kochi on 7 December 2013in Bangalore. It served the purpose of showcasing and promoting commercially viable technologiesfrom NBAII. Major biopesticide and agrochemical manufacturers and suppliers were in attendanceat the meet. A descriptive brochure and a colourful calendar of technologies were also released.The meet also facilitated a B2B session between the entrepreneurs and inventors of thetechnologies. The Society for Biocontrol Advancement partially sponsored the event.

International Training Visits

Three scientists of our Bureau received advancedtraining in USA under the National AgriculturalInnovation Project this quarter.

Dr M. Nagesh, Principal Scientist, obtained histraining on “Genomics and transcriptomics” fromDr Amit Dhingra at the Washington StateUniversity, Pullman.

Dr M. Mohan, Senior Scientist, completed hisresearch on “Molecular analysis of insecticideresistance genes from the model insect bedbug,Cimex lectularius” under the guidance of Dr SubbaReddy Palli at the University of Kentucky,Lexington.

Dr Mahesh S. Yandigeri, Senior Scientist, workedon the ‘Metagenome of Wolbachia endosymbiontassociated with tomato psyllid using BAClibraries’ with Dr Richard Stouthamer at theUniversity of California Riverside, Riverside.