Development of tapioca based oligidic diet and its effects of mass rearing performance (Biology) on lepidopteran pest of Spodoptera litura (Fab.) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Abstract

This research mainly focused the objective is to study the effect of tapioca based oligidic diet and its effect on growth and reproductive parameters in tobacco caterpillar larvae of Spodoptera litura (Fabricious). These results indicated an artificial diet for mass rearing of the tobacco caterpillar Spodoptera litura (Fabricius) from the neonate to adult stage was developed at 27±1°C, 65±5% RH and 16:8 h scoto/photo-phase regime. The impact of a tapioca-based artificial diet on the developmental rate, life history parameters and fertility was examined over five consecutive generations for the Spodoptera litura armyworm Hubner (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), a highly polyphagous pest of many agricultural crops. The study showed that when fed the tapioca-based artificial diet during larval stage, larval and pupal developmental period, percentage of pupation, pupal weight, emergence rate of male and female, longevity, fecundity and hatching were non-significantly different than that of the control agar-based artificial diet. Moreover, the cost to rear on tapioca-based diet approached 2.13 times less than the cost of rearing on the agar-based artificial diet. The mean biological parameters based on rearing of ten continuous generations showed higher pupation (67.0±3.2), emergence (77.0±5.6) and fecundity (234.2±50.1 eggs) as compared to the most preferred natural food, castor leaf whose respective recorded values are 80, 75, 60% and 480 eggs. The artificial diet developed is suitable for mass rearing S. litura successfully throughout the year for laboratory and field experimentation as well as for commercial production of nuclear polyhedrosis viruses. © 2011 Academic Journals Inc.