Seasonal abundance of insect-pests

Cowpea [Vigna ungiculata (Linn.) Walp.] belongs to the family leguminosae, sub family Fabaceae, tribe phaseoleae and comprises of five subspecies. Cowpea has a number of common name, in English it is known as Cowder pea, blackeyed pea, Southern pea, while chola or choli, chavali, lobia in various vernacular languages in India. Vavilov (1939) recognized India and Africa as primary centres of origin of cowpea. It is used as pulse and green manure crop; besides it is also an important leguminous fodder crop after Lucerne due to its quick growing habit and high protein content. Cowpea contains vitamin A, B, 23.5% protein, 11.0% moisture, 1.3% fat, 56.8% carbohydrates, 3.9% fibre, 3.8% ash, calcium 76 mg/100 g and iron 5.7 mg/100 g seed (Kay, 1979). Cowpea is major importance to livehood of millions of relatively poor peoples in protein and many other nutrients, it is known as "Vegetable meat" (Singh et al., 2000).