Media Coverage
Dr. Sunil Joshi
Staff Image
Designation
Discipline
Entomology
Email
SJ.Shankar@icar.gov.in
sunjoshi.pdbc@gmail.com
Phone Number
080-2351-1982, Ext. 331/ (Res.)080-6598-8836
Fax
080-2341-1961
Professional Experience
30 years
Qualification
M.Sc., Ph.D (Agricultural Entomology)
Specilization
Working on taxonomy of aphids, mealybugs, soft scales and armored scales
Worked on the development of mass production techniques for predators of sternorrhynchan pests
Worked on the development of mass production techniques for predators of sternorrhynchan pests
Training
Refresher course on "Information Technology in Agriculture" from June 1st 2005 to June 21st 2005.
Summer school on "Capacity building in identification and management of mite pests of crops" from September 21st 2005 to 11th October, 2005
Awards and Honours
Life member, Society of Biocontrol Advancement in India, Bangalore, India.
Life member, The Aphidological Society, India.
Life member, Association for the Advancement of Pest Management of in Horticultural Ecosystems, Bangalore, India.
Expert member in the Central Team formed by ICAR to assess the impact of the sugarcane woolly aphid, Ceratovacuna lanigera in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Assam in 2004-2005.
Expert member in the Central Team formed by ICAR for a follow-up survey to assess the impact of predators and parasitoids of the sugarcane woolly aphid, Ceratovacuna lanigera in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, 2006 and 2007.
An integral part of ‘Management of sugarcane woolly aphid -A success story’.
An integral part of ‘Classical biological control of papaya mealybug-A success story’
ICAR award: Certificate awarded for outstanding contribution to the ‘Classical Biological Control of Papaya Mealybug in India’ on the occasion of the Foundation Day Celebration of the National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Insects, Bangalore on 20th October 2012 through Dr S. Ayyappan, Secretary, DARE & DG, ICAR, New Delhi.
ICAR award: Certificate awarded for outstanding contribution to the ‘Biological Control of Sugarcane Woolly Aphid in South India’ on the occasion of the Foundation Day Celebration of the National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Insects, Bangalore on 20th October 2012 through Dr S. Ayyappan, Secretary, DARE & DG, ICAR, New Delhi.
Best Oral Presentation: Joshi, S., Prashanth Mohanraj, Shobitha, C.A. 2011. Biological studies on Micromus igorotus Banks, a predator of sugarcane woolly aphid, Ceratovacuna lanigera Zehntner. Paper presented at National Symposium on Harnessing Biodiversity for Biological Control of Crop Pests, Society for Biocontrol Advancement, May 25-26, 2011, Bangalore
Best Oral Presentation: Shylesha, A.N., Joshi, S., Rabindra, R.J., Shekhar, M.A., Narendra Kumar, Dhanyavati, P.N., Shivaraju, C. 2011. A successful case study of classical biological control of papaya mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus. Paper presented at National Symposium on Harnessing Biodiversity for Biological Control of Crop Pests, Society for Biocontrol Advancement, May 25-26, 2011, Bangalore
Best Oral Presentation Award: Ankita Gupta & Sunil Joshi. An Indian perspective of the neglected players for the control of nasty sucking pests. First International Conference on Biological Control Approaches and Applications (ICBC 2018), Bengaluru, 27-29th September 2018
Best Poster Presentation: for the poster entitled “Development of a novel mass production technique for Brumoides suturalis (Fabricius) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), a predator of mealybug” by Sunil Joshi, Chandish R. Ballal and B.L. Lakshmi, at IOBC Global Workshop Group on Mass Rearing and Quality Assurance
Brief Achievements
Mass production techniques were developed for host insects viz., Sitotroga cerealella, Aphis craccivora
Mass production techniques were developed for several coccinellids viz., Cheilomenes sexmaculata, Coccinella septempunctata using A. craccivora; Curinus coeruleus and Scymnus coccivora using Ferrisia virgata; and Brumoides suturalis using Sitotroga cerealella eggs.
Mass production techniques were developed for syrphids Ischiodon scutellaris, Paragus serratus, P. yerburiensis, and hemerobiids Micromus igorotus and M. timidus by using Aphis craccivora.
Seventy-seven species of aphids were reported from Karnataka. Keys to all the species were developed; natural enemies of all the species of aphids, associated ants, and host plants were recorded. This includes several new host plant records and new records of the natural enemy and host insect associations.
Identified invasive species like sugarcane woolly aphid, cotton mealybug, papaya mealybug, Madeira mealybug, Jackbeardsleyi mealybug, and Cassava mealybug, which helped to design ecologically sound management practices for these pests.
Seven mealybugs, four armoured scales, and two soft scales were identified to be a regular occurrence in the fruit packets imported from different countries. Two extremely notorious invasive mealybug species viz., Exallomochlus philippinensis Williams and Exallomochlus hispidus (Morrison) were identified and destructed and thus their spread was prevented.
Provided free identification services for aphids and coccids, for thousands of students, research workers and agricultural officers. From 2013 to 2022, he provided 468 identification services and the number of species identified through these were 1,445, the identification charges for these services would have been Rs. 14,45,000/- (with usual charges of identification of Rs. 1000/- for identification of one species).
Developed three DVDs viz., ‘Predaory Coccinellidae’, ‘Management of Sugarcane Woolly Aphid’ and ‘Classical Biological Control of Papaya Mealybug – A Success Story’
Developed two websites viz., ‘Aphids of Karnataka’ and ‘Common Soft Scales of India’
Described new species of aphid - Kaochiaoja sikkimensis Joshi and Blackman; new species of mealybug - Formicococcus tectonae Joshi, Bindu & Gullan; new species of soft scale insects- Marsipococcus christopheri Joshi and Cyphococcus williamsi Joshi & Rajgopal; new species of a monophlebid scale insect - lcerya viraktamathi Joshi.
Recorded adventive/invasive aphids and scale insects (mealybugs, soft scales, armoured scales) viz., Wahlgreniella nervata (Gillette), Kilifia acuminata (Signoret), Trijuba oculata (Bain), Protopulvinaria longivalvata Green, Pulvinaria urbicola Cockerell, Platylecanium nepalense Takagi, Hemilecanium theobromae Newstead, Phenacoccus manihoti Matile-Ferrero, Formicococcus simplicior (Green), Antonina thaiensis Takahashi, Tuberaphis xinglongensis (Zhang), Patchiella reaumuri (Kaltenbach), Maacoccus piperis (Green), Fistulococcus pokfulamensis Hodgson & Martin, Paralecanium machili Takahashi, and Ceroplastes cirripediformis Comstock
Recognition
Life member, Society of Biocontrol Advancement in India, Bangalore, India.
Life member, The Aphidological Society, India
Life member, Association for the Advancement of Pest Management of in Horticultural Ecosystems, Bangalore, India
Publications
Total Number of Publication = 70
Selected Publications
Joshi, S. and Viraktamath, C.A. 2004. The sugarcane woolly aphid, Ceratovacuna lanigera Zehntner (Hemiptera: Aphididae): its biology, pest status and control. Current Science, 87: 307-316.
Joshi, S., Rabindra, R.J. and Rajendran, T.P. 2010. Biological control of aphids. Journal of Biological Control, 24 (3): 185-202.
Joshi, S., Lokeshwari, D., Krishna Kumar, N.K., Manjunatha, H., Verghese, A. and Jalali, S.K. 2014. Wahlgreniella nervata (Hemiptera: Aphididae), a new pest of rose in India. Florida Entomologist, 97(1):162-167.
Joshi, S. 2017. First record of Pulvinaria urbicola Cockerell (Hemiptera: Coccidae) from Indiam with a key to the Indian species of Pulvinaria Targioni Tozzetti. Zootaxa, 4236 (3), pp 533 – 542.
Joshi, S. and Ramesh Kumar, A. 2017. Silent foray of three soft scale insects in India. Current Science, 112: 629-635.
Joshi, S. and Blackman, R.L. 2017. A new bamboo-feeding species of Kaochiaoja Tao (Hemiptera: Aphididae) from India. Zootaxa, 4363 (4): 569-575.
Joshi, S., Rameshkumar, A. and Prashanth M. 2017. New host-parasitoid associations for some coccids (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) from India. Journal of Entomological Research, 41(2):177-182.
Joshi, S., Ramya, R.S., Omprakash, N., Pawar, S.A. and Tambe, A.B. 2019. Redescription of Pulvinaria indica Avasthi & Shafee, 1985 (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Coccidae) with new host and distribution records. Zootaxa, 4545(1):133.
Joshi, S. and Firake, D.N. (2019) First record of Platylecanium nepalense Takagi (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Coccidae) from India, with redescription and a key to the species of Platylecanium Cockerell & Robinson. Phytoparasitica, 48: 35-41.
Joshi, S., Bindu, K.J., Gullan, P. Sajeev, T.V. and Anoop, E.V. (2020) A new species of mealybug (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Pseudococcidae) from Tectona grandis L.f. (Lamiaceae) in southern India. Zootaxa, 4718 (3): 391–400.
Joshi, S., Pai, S.G., Deepthy, K.B., Ballal, C.R. and Watson, G.W. (2020) The cassava mealybug, Phenacoccus manihoti Matile-Ferrero (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Pseudococcidae) arrives in India. Zootaxa, 4772 (1): 191–194.
Joshi, S. (2020) A new species of Marsipococcus Cockerell & Bueker (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Coccidae) infesting Piper nigrum L. in India. Zootaxa, 4820 (3): 572–580.
Joshi, S. and Kondo, T. (2020) First report of Hemilecanium theobromae Newstead (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Coccidae) from India. African Entomology, 28(2): 425–432.
Joshi, S., Navik, O. and Veereshkumar (2021) A new species of Icerya Signoret (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Monophlebidae) and a key to species of the genus found in India. Zootaxa, 4920 (2): 200–210.
Joshi, S., Haseena Bhaskar, Aashiq Poon, V. S., Jayanthi Mala B. R., Kamala Jayanthi, P. D., Pai, S. G., Thite, S. V., Sood, A. K., Kedar, S. C., Shridhar, V., Deephy, K. B., Omprakash Navik and Rachana, R. R. (2021) Occurrence and spread of Ceroplastes cirripediformis Comstock (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Coccidae) in India. Zootaxa, 5039 (4): 561–570.
Joshi, S., Gupta, A., Rajgopal, N. N., Venkatesan, T. (2021) Taxonomic notes on the genus Cyphococcus Laing (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Coccidae), with description of a new species from India. Zootaxa, 5104 (4): 531–544.
Joshi, S., Subramanian, M., Smitha, R., Samparh Kumar, M. and Mohan, M. (2022) Identification keys to live and mounted mealybug (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) species associated with cassava in India and their present distribution. Pest Management in Horticultural Ecosystems, 27: 114-127.
Joshi, S., Deshmukh, S. S., Ojha, R., Jalali, S. K., Pavithra, H. B. and Kalleshwara Swamy, C. M. (2022) First report of Tuberaphis xinglongensis (Zhang, 1982) from India on Areca catechu Linnaeus with morphological re-description and molecular characterization. Pest Management in Horticultural Ecosystems, 27: 232-239. (5.05)
Joshi, S., Prathapan, K.D., Sreejith, M.M., Haseena, B., Shukla, S.P., Babita, K., Kunhamu, T.K. 2022. The invasive azedarach scale Aulacaspis crawii (Cockerell, 1898) (Hemiptera, Diaspididae) in India. Current Science, 123 (4): 527-529. (7.10)
Joshi, S., Gupta, A., Shashank, P.R., Pai, S.G., Mohan, M., Rachana, R.R., Dubey, V.K., Sandeep, A., Deepthy, K.B. 2022. Recent adventive soft scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Coccidae) and mealybugs (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Pseudococcidae) in India. Zootaxa, 5194 (2): 213–232. (7.09)
