News Excerpt: 

The Rajya Sabha learned that the invasive Thrips Parvispinus may have displaced or even eliminated the native scirtothrips dorsalis chilli thrips.

About Thrips Parvispinus:

• Thrips parvispinus (Karny) is a cosmopolitan pest species and has been reported from Thailand, Australia and Europe. 
• The last two decades witnessed a drastic extension in the geographic distribution of T. parvispinus and it is now known to occur in France, Greece, Hawaii, Mauritius, Reunion, Spain, Tanzania and the Netherlands, besides India. 
• It is a polyphagous species and has been reported infesting beans, eggplant, papaya, chilli, pepper, potato, shallot and strawberry.
• In addition, it inflicts injury to ornamental plants, viz. Anthurium, Chrysanthemum, Dahlia, Dipladenia, Gardenia and Ficus.
• In India, this species was first reported on Papaya from Bengaluru in 2015 and considering its potential to acquire pest status, regular monitoring of this pest was carried out in other parts of India after its first record.

Latest issues in India:

• According to a study, 40 to 80 percent of the damage to chilli crops in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is due to thrips.
• Thrips are one of the major sucking pests and vectors of plant viruses causing huge economic losses in agriculture.
• The change in weather and climatic conditions during the crop season might have favoured the establishment of thrips parvispinus, resulting in a sudden upsurge in the chilli ecosystem.
• The absence of natural enemies of this particular invasive pest in the area of invasion for natural control of the pest species and excessive use of chemical pesticides and staggered plantings also might be the reasons for their outbreak.