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A two-year field study was conducted at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India, to study the relative abundance of mustard/turnip aphid, Lipaphis erysimi (Kaltenbach) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and the associated resident natural enemies on 10 different rapeseed-mustard genotypes which included: Brassica juncea: RH 7846, RH 9501, RK 9501, JMM 927, Purple Mutant; B. napus: Hyola PAC 401 (Hybrid); B. rapa ecotype yellow sarson cv. YST 151; B. rapa ecotype brown sarson cv. BSH 1; B. carinata: DLSC 2 and Eruca sativa: T 27. The objective was to study whether indigenous natural enemies can be used for biological control of mustard aphid. Population of turnip aphid and different natural enemies was recorded at weekly intervals. There was lack of synchronization in the peak activity of natural enemies with that of the aphids with a time lag of one to two weeks depending upon the genotype. For example, on B. juncea cv. RH 7846, the peak aphids’ population was recorded during the 10^th Standard Meteorological Week (SMW) while that of predators’ was recorded during the 12^th SMW in 2007-2008 crop season. Among the different natural enemies, coccinellids were the most abundant with grubs being dominant in the initial phase of population development and adults in the later one. There is a need to conserve the resident natural enemies in mustard ecosystem for effective early season suppression of the aphid population or release them early in the season to suppress aphid population in lag phase of its development.

Keywords: Agroecosystem, Ecology, Mustard aphid, parasitoid, Predator

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