Artificial Rearing of Reduviid Predators for Pest Management

Dr. K. Sahayaraj is an Associate Professor of Department of Zoology and Director of the Crop Protection Research Centre, St. Xavier s College, Palaymkottai affiliated to Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli. He is a recognized Fellow of six national societies/academic bodies. Dr. Sahayaraj has published six books and one proceeding on Ecofriendly Insect Pest Management. He has more than 200 publications to his credit, including original research papers, book chapters, and popular articles in insect ecology, behavior, biology and physiology, as well as numerous papers on the biological control efficacy of reduviids, botanicals, fungal pathogens and bionanoparticles. He has been honored with several awards from regional (Best Researcher in Science, St. Xavier s College), national (Scientists of the Year 2008, NESA, New Delhi; Young Achievers Award-2010 by SADHNA, Solan; Bharat Seva Ratan Gold Medal Award-2014 by GEPRA, New Delhi; Bharat Seven Rethan Gold Medel by GEPBRA, New Delhi) and international agencies (Hyoshi Environmentalist Award, Japan; YOUNG IOBC travel grant awardee).

He has guided more than 19 Ph. D. scholars and supervised two researchers. He has consistently worked to transfer laboratory findings to neighborhood farmers and to offer them guidance on BIPM. To this end, he has brought out five manuals/books in Tamil. Most recently, he has been engaged in publishing an international journal, the Journal of Biopesticides.

Dr. R. Balasubramanian received his Bachelor s and postgraduate degrees in Zoology from Madurai Kamaraj University, India in 2000 and 2003 respectively. His research career began in year 2004 at Fisheries College and Research Institute, Thoothukudi, Tamilnadu, as a technical assistant, where he carried out research in shrimp culture with different diets. In 2005, Dr. Balasubramanian went on to pursue his Ph. D. at St. Xavier s College, Palayamkottai (Manonmaniam Sundaranar University) on the synthesis of artificial diet for mass production of hemipteran predators. Here, he learned about agricultural entomology, especially biological control, the bioecology of insects, advanced technologies in modern biological science, and the artificial rearing of predator insects. He has published a number of research papers on biocontrol, bioecology of insects and oligidic diet preparation for reduviid mass production. In March 2009, Dr. Balasubramanian joined the Department of Medical Entomology and Zoology, National Institute of Virology, Pune, where he began conducting research on Medical Entomology. More recently he has served as a scientist at the National Institute in Kerala field unit, Alappuzha, Kerala.