Feeding and ovipositional pattern of tea mosquito bug, Helopeltis theivora Waterhouse (Hemiptera: Miridae) under field conditions in cocoa

The tea mosquito bug (TMB), Helopeltis theivora is a serious pest on cocoa that inflicts substantial losses during epidemic situations. Understanding the pest’s ecology in relation to weather parameters is a major challenge, especially in the face of climate change. The study aimed to assess the feeding and ovipositional activity of TMB at the field level for two seasons (2022-24). Results showed that, TMB incidence ranged from 47 to 85% with the mean number of bugs on shoots, cherelles and pods were 2.04 ± 0.28, 2.92 ± 0.34 and 5.17 ± 0.69, respectively. However, the feeding activity was maximum in the early morning (0600 to 0800 h), declined gradually till mid-day and then reappeared in the late evening. In addition, adult female laid maximum number of eggs on cherelles (3.67 ± 0.41) than on pods (2.57 ± 0.25); while, shoots received lowest number of eggs (0.93 ± 0.20). Furthermore, the ‘optimum temperature’ (23-24°C) emerged as the strongest predictor for population fluctuation of TMB on cocoa plants and reached peak from last week of December to third week of January. All the weather factors including minimum temperature, rainfall, maximum temperature and relative humidity were negatively correlated in both seasons. Overall, the findings provide a comprehensive knowledge on feeding and ovipositional activity TMB under field conditions to implementing timely control measures.