UPHESC Assistant Professor Entomology PYQs

Concept: NIPHM (National Institute of Plant Health Management) is the apex training institute of the Ministry of Agriculture for plant protection/IPM.

1. It is located at Rajendranagar, Hyderabad (Telangana).
2. It was set up in 1966 as the Central Plant Protection Training Institute and renamed NIPHM in 2008.
3. New Delhi houses the Directorate of PPQ&S (at Faridabad) and IARI; Bengaluru has NBAIR – not NIPHM.

Short trick: NIPHM, NAARM and NIRD – all three national training institutes are in Hyderabad.

Concept: A contagious (communicable) disease is one that spreads from an infected individual to a healthy (non-infected) one.

1. In insect pathology, e.g. NPV, pebrine and flacherie spread from diseased to healthy larvae in a rearing.
2. 'Low incidence' and 'high morbidity' describe how often/how severely a disease occurs, not whether it is transmissible.

Short trick: Contagious = 'contact se failne wala' – infected → healthy.

Concept: A predator is a free-living organism that catches and kills its prey (host), usually consuming many prey in its life.

1. Examples: lady bird beetles, green lacewing larvae, spiders, syrphid larvae.
2. Living on the body of the host and completing development on a single host are features of parasites/parasitoids, not predators.

Short trick: Predator = free + kills many; parasitoid = one host, lives on/in it.

Concept: The Huffaker Project (1972–78, USA), led by C.B. Huffaker and funded by NSF/EPA/USDA, was the first major, large-scale IPM project.

1. It developed IPM systems for cotton, citrus, alfalfa, pome fruits, pine bark beetles etc. across many US universities.
2. It integrated several tactics, so it is not limited to biological, microbial or hormonal control alone.
3. It was followed by the CIPM (Consortium for IPM) project (1979–85).

Short trick: Huffaker (1972) → first big IPM project; Hoskins (1939) → word 'integrated control'.

Concept: Nuclear polyhedrosis viruses (NPV) belong to family Baculoviridae (genus Alphabaculovirus/Gammabaculovirus), along with granuloviruses (GV).

1. Baculoviruses have rod-shaped, enveloped, double-stranded DNA virions occluded in protein occlusion bodies (polyhedra).
2. Cypoviruses = cytoplasmic polyhedrosis viruses (Reoviridae, RNA); Entomopoxviruses = insect pox viruses; Nudiviruses lack occlusion bodies.

Short trick: NPV & GV = 'Baculo' (baculum = rod).

Concept: Acerophagus papayae (Encyrtidae) is a host-specific parasitoid of the papaya mealybug Paracoccus marginatus.

1. Papaya mealybug invaded India (Tamil Nadu) in 2008 and damaged papaya, mulberry, tapioca and teak.
2. In 2010 NBAII imported A. papayae (with Pseudleptomastix mexicana and Anagyrus loecki) from Puerto Rico; it brought the pest under control within a year.
3. Aleurodicus rugioperculatus (rugose spiralling whitefly) is controlled by Encarsia guadeloupae.

Short trick: Papaya mealybug ↔ Acerophagus papayae – 'papaya' in both names.

Concept: PCR amplifies DNA by repeated cycles of denaturation (~94 °C), annealing and extension; the extension needs a heat-stable DNA polymerase.

1. Taq polymerase, from the thermophilic bacterium Thermus aquaticus, survives the denaturation step – this made PCR automatic (Kary Mullis).
2. Reverse transcriptase is used only in a special variant (RT-PCR) to first make cDNA from RNA; it is not the PCR enzyme.
3. RNA polymerase plays no role in PCR.

Short trick: PCR enzyme = Taq (from hot springs, heat-proof).

Concept: Complete (holometabolous) metamorphosis has four stages: egg → larva → pupa → adult.

1. Butterfly (Lepidoptera) has caterpillar larva and chrysalis (pupa) – complete metamorphosis.
2. Cockroach and grasshopper show incomplete (hemimetabolous/paurometabolous) metamorphosis: egg → nymph → adult.
3. Silverfish (Zygentoma) is ametabolous – young resemble adults.

Short trick: Pupa present = complete; nymph = incomplete; no change = ametabolous.

Concept: Insect cuticle layers from outside inwards: epicuticle → exocuticle → mesocuticle → endocuticle → subcuticle (Schmidt's layer) → epidermis → basement membrane.

1. The subcuticle is the innermost, newly deposited, undifferentiated layer of procuticle.
2. It lies just below the endocuticle and above the epidermal cells.

Short trick: Order 'E-E-M-E-S': Epi, Exo, Meso, Endo, Sub – 'sub' is at the bottom.

Concept: Oligopod larvae have three pairs of thoracic legs and no abdominal prolegs; campodeiform ones are elongate, flattened, active with long legs and cerci.

1. Campodeiform larvae occur in Coleoptera (ground beetles – Carabidae, rove beetles, Dytiscidae, Meloidae triungulin) and in Neuroptera (lacewings).
2. Hymenoptera (bees, wasps) and Diptera (maggots) have apodous larvae; Lepidoptera have polypod eruciform caterpillars; sawflies (Hymenoptera) are also polypod.

Short trick: Campodeiform = 'Campodea-like' runner – carabid & lacewing larvae.

Concept: Population movements: immigration = one-way movement INTO an area; emigration = one-way movement OUT of an area; migration = periodic two-way movement.

1. The question says 'one way inward' → immigration (adds to population density).
2. Dispersal is the general term for spreading of individuals in any direction.

Short trick: IMmigration = IN; EMigration = EXit.

Concept: The female mosquito's proboscis has six needle-like stylets enclosed in the grooved labium (sheath).

1. Stylets: labrum-epipharynx (1) + hypopharynx (1) + mandibles (2) + maxillae/laciniae (2) = 6.
2. The labium does not pierce; it bends back as the stylets enter the skin.
3. Bugs (Hemiptera) have only 4 stylets (2 mandibular + 2 maxillary).

Short trick: Mosquito 6, bug 4, thrips 3 (rasping-sucking).

Concept: Brain hormone (PTTH – prothoracicotropic hormone) acts only to activate the prothoracic glands for moulting; in most adult (pterygote) insects the prothoracic glands degenerate after the final moult, so there is no PTTH–ecdysone moulting axis.

1. Juvenile hormone is present in adults – it regulates vitellogenesis, accessory gland activity and reproduction (gonadotropic role).
2. Eclosion hormone is released at adult emergence (eclosion) and triggers the emergence behaviour.
3. Epideictic (spacing/marking) signals are released by adults, e.g. the oviposition-marking pheromone of fruit flies.
4. Hence the one not needed in the adult is the brain hormone (PTTH).

Short trick: Adults do not moult → no brain hormone → no ecdysone.

Concept: Know the family of common insects.

1. Leaf hopper → Cicadellidae (c); Lady bird beetle → Coccinellidae (d).
2. Green lacewing (Chrysoperla) → Chrysopidae (e); House fly (Musca domestica) → Muscidae (a).
3. Tiger moth (e.g. hairy caterpillars) → Arctiidae (b). Code: c-d-e-a-b.

Short trick: Name inside family: Musca–Muscidae, Coccinella–Coccinellidae, Chrysopa–Chrysopidae.

Concept: Lipaphis erysimi is the mustard aphid (Aphididae, Hemiptera), an insect with incomplete metamorphosis.

1. Its young are nymphs; both nymphs and adults suck sap from leaves, inflorescence and pods.
2. 'Grub' is the larva of beetles and 'larva/caterpillar' of moths – not applicable to aphids.

Short trick: Hemiptera → nymph + adult both damage.

Concept: Sawfly larvae (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae) look like caterpillars but carry 6–8 pairs of prolegs without crochets; lepidopteran caterpillars have at most 5 pairs, with crochets.

1. Athalia lugens proxima (mustard sawfly) larva has 8 pairs of abdominal prolegs (on segments 2–8 and 10).
2. Achaea janata (castor semilooper) has only 3 pairs (semilooper); Pericallia ricini and Pieris brassicae have the normal 5 pairs.

Short trick: More than 5 pairs of prolegs → sawfly, not moth.

Concept: Fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (Noctuidae), native to the Americas, was first reported in India in May–July 2018.

1. It was found on maize at Shivamogga (Karnataka) by UAHS/ICAR-NBAIR.
2. It later spread to sorghum, sugarcane, millets etc., but maize is its main and first-recorded host in India.

Short trick: FAW 2018, Karnataka, Maize.

Concept: The phase theory was proposed by B.P. Uvarov (1921): locusts exist in a solitary and a gregarious phase that differ in colour, form and behaviour.

1. Crowding converts solitaria into gregaria (via transiens) – the swarming phase.
2. Example: desert locust Schistocerca gregaria, migratory locust Locusta migratoria.

Short trick: Uvarov → phase theory → locust.

Concept: Yellow stem borer, Scirpophaga incertulas, lays eggs in masses covered with buff hairs near the tips of rice leaves in the nursery.

1. Clipping the leaf tips of seedlings before transplanting removes these egg masses and reduces dead-heart.
2. Gundhi bug lays eggs in rows on leaves/panicle, leaf folder lays single eggs, grasshoppers lay eggs in soil.

Short trick: Leaf-tip egg mass → stem borer → clip before transplanting.

Concept: The green leafhopper, Nephotettix virescens / N. nigropictus (Cicadellidae), inserts its eggs with its ovipositor in rows into the leaf tissue.

1. Eggs (8–16 per row) are embedded in the parenchymatous tissue of the leaf sheath/leaf midrib, under the epidermis.
2. They are not laid in soil or inside the true stem; the nymphs hatch in 6–9 days.

Short trick: Leafhopper = endophytic oviposition in leaf tissue.