Region: South Asia > India
Categorized: Host plant resistance
Tagged:
BIOLOGY OF FALL ARMY WORM SPODOPTERA FRUGIPERDA (J. E. SMITH) ON ARTIFICIAL DIETS
Fall army worm Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is one of the important
invasive pests causing economic losses to maize, sorghum and other millets. This study aims to develop
suitable cost-effective crop based artificial diet for its rearing and evaluates the biology under laboratory
conditions. Study revealed that the least life cycle period (egg to adult) was obtained with sorghum+
chickpea based diet (D1: 31-39 days) as compared to sorghum based diet(D2: 37-44 days) and maize+
chickpea based diet (D3: 40-48 days). Fully developed larvae measured longer, broader and heavier
when reared on D1, also the fecundity was maximum. A cheap artificial diet to rear S. frugiperda is thus
developed in this study.
Key words: Spodoptera frugiperda, artificial diet, sorghum, chickpea, maize, fecundity, biology, morphometrics,
length, width, weight, lifecycle
