OCCURRENCE AND DISTRIBUTION OF PLANT PARASITIC NEMATODES IN POMEGRANATE GROWING AREAS OF TAMIL NADU
Pomegranate crop grown under orchard conditions was surveyed for nematode incidence in Coimbatore, Erode, Tirupur, Dindigul and Theni districts of Tamil Nadu. The crop was found to be affected by many phytonematodes, viz., Meloidogyne incognita, Rotylenchulus reniformis, Helicotylenchus multicinctus, Pratylenchus coffeae and Xiphinima index. Among them, the root knot nematode M. incognita was observed to be frequently occurring and predominant genus among the samples surveyed. The community analysis of nematodes associated with pomegranate revealed that the relative frequency, relative density and prominence value were the highest for M. incognita compared to the other genera.