Natural enemies associated with some economic pests:

Protection of crops from insect pests is a chronic problem of great concern to the farmers and a challenge to scientific community. In recent years, more emphasis is given on eco-friendly control measures of pests and biological control which is a ¿living weapon¿ over ¿chemical control¿. The parasitoids pay a vital role in biological pest control since they destroy a very large number of insect pests belonging to the orders Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, etc. The applied biological control should have its origin from complex information on distribution, taxonomy and biology. In fact, we cannot utilize parasitoid species in control programme without above information. The book contains, national and international status of biological pest control, descriptions of Braconid and Ichneumonid parasitoids and pest parasitoid index of India. We hope that the book will be useful to farmers, students, teachers, researchers and commercial institutes engaged in biological control of insect pests.