UTTAR PRADESH JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY

The mustard aphid, Lipaphis erysimi (Kaltenbach), is an important pest of rapeseed-mustard, and monitoring its alate population is useful for understanding its seasonal activity. The present investigation was conducted during Rabi 2024–25 and 2025–26 at Banda University of Agriculture and Technology (BUAT), Banda (India) and at a farmer-managed mustard field, to monitor the seasonal abundance of alate mustard aphids using yellow sticky traps and to assess their association with weather parameters. Two yellow sticky traps (21 × 15 cm) were installed at each location (300 m²), and aphid catches were recorded at weekly intervals. Maximum temperature, minimum temperature, average temperature, relative humidity and rainfall data were obtained from the Agro-meteorological Observatory, BUAT, and correlation coefficients were calculated separately for each location and season. During Rabi 2024–25, alate aphid activity commenced in the 1st standard meteorological week (SMW), with peak catches of 125.00 and 148.50 aphids trap⁻¹ at the university farm, BUAT and the farmer-managed field, respectively, during the 6th SMW. During Rabi 2025–26, activity commenced earlier, in the 50th SMW, and again peaked during the 6th SMW, reaching 156.50 and 208.00 aphids trap⁻¹ at BUAT and the farmer-managed field, respectively. Thereafter, aphid catches declined towards crop maturity. Alate aphid catches showed negative correlations with maximum, minimum and average temperature, whereas relative humidity showed positive correlations and rainfall showed weak negative correlations. Significant negative correlations with minimum temperature (r = −0.555) and average temperature (r = −0.515) were observed only at the farmer-managed field during Rabi 2024–25; all other correlations were non-significant. The aphid catches were higher at the farmer-managed field than at the university farm.