{"id":89587,"date":"2026-02-24T13:39:54","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T08:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=89587"},"modified":"2026-02-24T13:39:54","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T08:09:54","slug":"contarinia-icardiflores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/contarinia-icardiflores\/","title":{"rendered":"Contarinia icardiflores"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Contarinia icardiflores Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientists from the ICAR-Directorate of Floricultural Research (ICAR-DFR), Pune, recently discovered a new species of blossom midge, Contarinia icardiflores sp. nov.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Contarinia icardiflores<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>new species of blossom midge.<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Blossom midges of the genus Contarinia are <\/span><b>small insects<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> known to be serious <\/span><b>pests of ornamental and food crops <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">worldwide.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>larvae feed inside flower buds or blossoms,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> often causing severe yield loss in agricultural and horticultural crops.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>C. icardiflores<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has been <\/span><b>named in honour of ICAR-DFR, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">acknowledging the institute\u2019s contributions to floriculture research.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was found causing significant <\/span><b>economic losses in jasmine cultivation,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> especially in some parts of<\/span><b> Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>pest <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2015 about 1.5 to 2 mm in size &#8211; <\/span><b>completes its life cycle in 16 to 21.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although C. icardiflores <\/span><b>closely resembles C. maculipennis <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014 the <\/span><b>only other midge known to attack jasmine<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 it is <\/span><b>genetically distinct.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The findings provide essential biological insights and lay the groundwork for developing targeted and eco-friendly pest management strategies for jasmine farmers in the country. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.icar.org.in\/en\/contarinia-icardiflores-sp-nov-new-blossom-midge-species-named-after-icar-dfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ICAR<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists at ICAR-DFR Pune have discovered Contarinia icardiflores, a new blossom midge pest damaging jasmine crops in India, affecting yields and farmer incomes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":89612,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5682,21,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-89587","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-contarinia-icardiflores","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","11":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89587"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89664,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89587\/revisions\/89664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}