Adulticidal, ovicidal and nymphicidal effects of different newer acaricides along with some conventional one were evaluated on the life stages of a susceptible laboratory strain of two-spotted spider mite (TSMM), Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acarina: Tetranychidae) using a spray method. Abamectin was found to be the most toxic to the adults (LC 50 = 0.39 ppm) followed by fenpyroximate (5.67 ppm), spiromesifen (12.53 ppm), chlorfenapyr (32.24 ppm), propargite (77.05 ppm) and dicofol (146.65 ppm). Hexythiazox was least toxic. There was no egg hatching when eggs were sprayed with one third of the recommended concentration of spiromesifen. This was statistically significantly different from all other treatments (fenpyroximate, chlorfenapyr, propargite, dicofol and hexythiazox) which were, however, at par with each other. Based on the 10 th day observations, the ovicidal activity of spiromesifen (100%) was followed by dicofol (7.78% egg mortality) and hexythiazox (6.67%). Almost no effect on hatching was observed in both abamectin and chlorfenapyr treatment (0.54%). In case of propargite, all the treated eggs hatched. Abamectin resulted in highest nymphal mortality (96.05%) followed by dicofol (94.51%), hexythiazox (90.24) propargite (90.00), chlorfenapyr (89.33) and fenpyroximate (86.84%) and all the treatments were at par with each other and statistically different from the control. The present study revealed that abamectin, spiromesifen, hexythiazox, fenpyroximate and chlorfenapyr acaricides can alternatively be used for effective management of the mites. ª 2015 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

The diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (L.) (Lepidoptera: Yponomeutidae) is the most serious pest of cruciferous crops grown in the world causing economic yield loss. Several synthetic insecticides have been used against P. xylostella but satisfactory control was not achieved due to development of resistance to insecticides. Therefore, the present study was carried out to screen different fractions of Zanthoxylum armatum for their insecticidal activities against second instar larvae of P. xylostella. Results indicate, all the fractions showed activity to P. xylostella. However, n-hexane fraction of Z. armatum showed maximum larvicidal activity with minimum LC50 value of 2988.6 ppm followed by ethanol (LC50 = 12779.7 ppm) and methanol fraction (LC50 = 12908.8 ppm) whereas chloroform fraction was least toxic (LC50 = 16750.6 ppm). The GC-MS analysis of n-hexane fraction of leaf extract showed maximum larvicidal activity, which may be due to two major compounds i.e. 2-undecanone (19.75%) and 2-tridecanone (11.76%).