author(s)
Bharath Kumar Neelaboina, Gulzar Ahmad khan, Shiv kumar, Mudasir Gani, Mir Nisar Ahmad and MK Ghosh

abstract
Agriculture and its allied sectors will inevitably face challenges caused by climate change in future which might lead to both global and local alteration. Enriched atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) and temperature can have various effects at different tropic levels in ecosystems (plants, herbivores, predators and parasitoids). Global CO₂ concentration has been increased by approximately 30% since the industrial revolution resulted in increase of ~0.66 °C in mean annual global surface temperature. Many plant species respond to enriched CO₂ with enhanced photosynthetic rate and increased biomass. Alterations of CO₂ and temperature will affect the insect pests by decreasing their relative growth rate (RGR) and prolonged developmental time in Lepidoptera (leaf chewers) where as increased abundance and fecundity in homoptera (sap suckers). Changes in foliar chemistry under elevated condition are likely to alter interaction between herbivorous insect and their natural enemies. Though plant biomassincreased but their nutritional quality gets deteriorated such as lower nitrogen (N) content, higher C:N ratio, starch, total soluble sugars and polyphenols that affect insect growth, consumption and digestibility. The effect of increased CO₂ and temperature on mulberry plants directly affects the lifecycle of silkworm. Like other lepidopterans silkworm may also feed more quantity of mulberry leaves to balance the deteriorated nutrition in mulberry leaves which may result in increased life cycle. Therefore, it will be interesting to observe the effect of increased feeding by beneficial insects such as mulberry silkworm which feed only on mulberry leaves.