UPMSP Intermediate Agricultural Zoology study plan

Construct a phylum-by-phylum table from Protozoa to Chordata filling in symmetry, germ layers, coelom type, segmentation and larval form from memory, then correct it against your textbook.

Sketch and label the external morphology of Ascaris, Pheretima, Pila and Asterias, naming five diagnostic structures on each.

Draw the life cycles of Taenia solium, Fasciola hepatica and Ascaris lumbricoides, marking the infective stage, intermediate host and portal of entry.

Explain the canal system of Sycon, the water-vascular system of Asterias and metamerism in Pheretima in four to five sentences each.

Draw a labelled eukaryotic animal cell and write a one-line function for every organelle, including the differences between plant and animal cells.

Classify the four basic tissues by location, cell shape and function, and identify each type from a written description.

Write the sequence of digestive enzymes along the alimentary canal giving substrate, product and pH optimum, and contrast monogastric with ruminant digestion.

Explain gas exchange across gills and lungs and trace the path of blood through a fish heart and a mammalian four-chambered heart.

Tabulate excretion (nephron versus Malpighian tubule), nerve impulse conduction, hormone action of thyroid, insulin and adrenaline, and the stages of spermatogenesis and oogenesis.

Identify at least 15 major pests - rice stem borer, brown planthopper, cotton bollworm, pink bollworm, red cotton bug, sugarcane top borer, wheat aphid, mustard sawfly, gram pod borer, brinjal shoot and fruit borer, tomato fruit borer, mango hopper, mango mealybug, citrus psylla, codling moth - by damage symptom, attacked crop stage and host range.

Describe the life cycle, generations per year and damaging stage of five stored-produce pests: Sitophilus oryzae, Trogoderma granarium, Callosobruchus chinensis, Tribolium castaneum and Sitotroga cerealella.

Sort pests into boring, sucking, defoliating and storage categories and justify each placement with the mouthpart and feeding site.

Draft an integrated pest management calendar for paddy or cotton that combines cultural, mechanical, biological and chemical steps with economic threshold levels.

Label the three body regions of an insect and classify ten mouthpart types (chewing, piercing-sucking, licking, siphoning, sponging, rasping-sucking and their variants) with one example order for each.

Diagram wing venation, name wing modification and coupling types, and classify six leg types and eight antenna types with an example insect each.

Compare ametabolous, hemimetabolous and holometabolous development, and distinguish five larval types (campodeiform, scarabaeiform, elateriform, vermiform, eruciform) and four pupal types.

Build a dichotomous key to the ten economically important orders (Orthoptera, Isoptera, Hemiptera, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, Thysanoptera, Odonata, Dictyoptera) using wing and mouthpart characters.

Solve ten genetics numericals - monohybrid, dihybrid, test cross and back cross - without notes and write the expected phenotypic ratios.

Explain sex determination in Drosophila and humans, non-disjunction, and four classes of chromosomal mutation with one example each; distinguish natural from artificial selection and inbreeding from outcrossing.

Tabulate five improved cattle and buffalo breeds and four poultry breeds with native tract and production traits, and describe crossbreeding, grading up and synthetic breed formation.

Outline housing, a feeding schedule and a vaccination calendar for one dairy animal and one backyard poultry flock.

List cause, symptoms and control of five farm-animal diseases and parasites such as foot-and-mouth disease, mastitis, haemorrhagic septicaemia, coccidiosis and tick infestation.

Describe apiculture - castes, life cycle, bee-box parts, honey extraction - and name three major enemies or diseases plus four pollinators with the crops they service.

Describe sericulture (mulberry silkworm life cycle, rearing, diseases) and lac culture (host plants, lac insect life cycle, inoculation, harvesting).

List five biological control agents such as Trichogramma, Bracon, Cryptolaemus, NPV and Bacillus thuringiensis with target pest and mode of action.

Classify pesticide formulations (EC, WP, dust, granule, suspension concentrate, bait) and solve six dosage and dilution problems involving ppm, spray volume and tank mix.

Label the parts of a knapsack sprayer, foot sprayer and power duster, compare nozzle types, and explain calibration, personal protective equipment, withholding period and first aid for organophosphate and pyrethroid poisoning.

Describe five plant-parasitic nematodes (root-knot, cyst, reniform, lesion, citrus nematode) with symptoms on roots and yield loss, and their management using resistant varieties, crop rotation and nematicides.

Identify four rodent pests of field and storage - Rattus rattus, Bandicota bengalensis, Mus musculus, Tatera indica - and outline baiting, fumigation, trapping and rodent-proofing.

Summarise bird and mollusc pests (weaver bird, parakeet, Achatina fulica, slugs) and their permitted management methods.

Explain ecosystem components, food chains and food webs, the ten per cent energy law and nutrient cycling, then relate each to an agro-ecosystem example.

Outline biodiversity levels and hotspots, three major pollution types affecting fauna, and Indian conservation instruments such as tiger reserves, biosphere reserves, national parks and protected schedules.

Sit three cold full-length mocks of 50 questions in 60 minutes each, spanning all ten domains, and log every wrong answer by domain and topic.

Re-study the three weakest domains from the error log until each corresponding practice set reaches 80% or better.

Recite from memory the key lists: ten insect orders, eight mouthpart types, five larval types, five stored-grain pests, five cattle breeds, five animal diseases and the sprayer parts.

Re-solve one genetics numerical set and one pesticide dilution set under timed conditions to confirm retention.