UPHESC Assistant Professor Entomology PYQs

Concept: Ranjit Singh (b. 1780, Gujranwala) was the son of Maha Singh, chief of the Sukerchakia misl; he unified the misls and took Lahore in 1799.

1. Phulkian misl – Patiala, Nabha, Jind.
2. Ahluwalia misl – Jassa Singh Ahluwalia (Kapurthala).
3. Dallewalia – another of the 12 misls.

Short trick: Sukerchakia → Sher-e-Punjab Ranjit Singh.

Concept: The Indian Councils Act, 1909 is called the Morley–Minto Reforms (John Morley – Secretary of State; Lord Minto – Viceroy).

1. It introduced separate electorates for Muslims.
2. GoI Act 1919 = Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms (dyarchy in provinces).

Short trick: 1909 Morley–Minto (separate electorate); 1919 Mont–Ford (dyarchy).

Concept: The Deccan Education Society (Pune, 1884) was founded by Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Vishnushastri Chiplunkar, Gopal Ganesh Agarkar, M. B. Namjoshi and others; it started Fergusson College (1885).

1. G. K. Gokhale joined the Society in 1886 as a life member – he was not a founder.
2. Lala Lajpat Rai is linked with DAV institutions; Indira Gandhi is irrelevant.

Short trick: DES 1884 = Tilak + Agarkar + Chiplunkar → Fergusson College.

Concept: 'The Indian Struggle' (1920–1942) was written by Subhas Chandra Bose; Part I was published in London in 1935.

1. Gandhi: Hind Swaraj, My Experiments with Truth.
2. Nehru: Discovery of India, Glimpses of World History.

Short trick: Bose struggled → 'The Indian Struggle'.

Concept: Meghalaya's hills from west to east are the Garo, Khasi and Jaintia Hills; the Nagas live further east in Nagaland.

1. Garo Hills (west Meghalaya) → Khasi Hills (centre, Shillong) → Jaintia Hills (east) → Naga Hills (Nagaland).

Short trick: G-K-J-N: 'Go Keep Journey North-east'.

Concept: Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary is in Mandsaur–Neemuch districts of Madhya Pradesh (on the Chambal), not in Rajasthan.

1. Dampa Tiger Reserve – Mizoram ✔.
2. Valmiki Tiger Reserve – West Champaran, Bihar ✔.
3. Rohla National Park – Kullu, Himachal Pradesh ✔.

Short trick: Gandhi Sagar dam/sanctuary = MP (Chambal; now cheetahs' second home).

Concept: Under Article 110(3), if any question arises whether a Bill is a Money Bill, the decision of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha is final.

1. The Speaker endorses a certificate on the Bill before it goes to Rajya Sabha (Art. 110(4)).
2. Rajya Sabha can only delay a Money Bill by 14 days.

Short trick: Money Bill → Speaker's certificate is final (Art. 110(3)).

Concept: In 1922 Mahatma Gandhi wrote that Swaraj would not be a free gift of the British Parliament but must be framed by the freely chosen representatives of the people of India.

1. Motilal Nehru drafted the Nehru Report (1928) – a constitution draft, not the 1922 demand.
2. M. N. Roy (1934) first proposed a Constituent Assembly explicitly; INC adopted it in 1935.

Short trick: 1922 Gandhi (idea) → 1928 Motilal (Nehru Report) → 1934 M. N. Roy (CA).

Concept: Fundamental Duties are in Part IV-A (Article 51A), added by the 42nd Amendment, 1976 – not Part VI-A.

1. Part II (Arts. 5–11) – Citizenship ✔.
2. Part III (Arts. 12–35) – Fundamental Rights ✔.
3. Part VIII (Arts. 239–242) – Union Territories ✔.

Short trick: Duties follow DPSP: Part IV → IV-A (51A).

Concept: India is a founder member of the IMF: it took part in Bretton Woods (1944) and joined when the Articles came into force on 27 December 1945.

1. The IMF began financial operations in 1947.
2. India also joined the World Bank (IBRD) as a founder member in 1945.

Short trick: Bretton Woods 1944 → IMF born 27 Dec 1945 with India as founder.

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.