Bionomics of Pink Boll Worm Pectinophora Gossypiella (Saunders) on Cotton and its Alternate Hosts

A laboratory experiment was conducted at the Department of Entomology, PJTSAU, Hyderabad on bionomics of pink boll worm Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders) on cotton and other alternate hosts. Considerable variation in larval period on host plants was observed, with the shortest of 18.75± 1.40 days being when reared on okra fruits; and the maximum of24.90± 1.42 days being with Bt cotton. Generally, females lived longer than males on all the host plants, with fecundity being maximum on non Bt cotton (162.5± 10.60 eggs/female) followed by abutilon (132.5± 10.50), Bt cotton (128.5± 10.7) and okra (124.5± 10.90). Duration of lifecycle of female was longest on Bt cotton (47.00± 2.34 days) which was on par with that observed with non Bt cotton (45.70± 2.26 days); but this differed significantly from that observed with abutilon (43.85± 1.60 days) and okra (41.30± 1.75 days). The morphometrics revealed variations in larval, prepupal and pupal measurements- the life stages measure maximum when reared on non Bt cotton; and body size and wing span of female was larger than male. Body length of female was maximum when reared with non Bt cotton (7.17± 0.76 mm) which significantly differed from that obtained with Bt cotton (6.65± 1.43 mm), abutilon (6.59± 0.28 mm) and okra (6.60± 0.39 mm). Similarly, maximum wing span of 14.6± 1.09 mm was observed on non Bt cotton which was on par with okra (13.40± 0.54 mm) and Bt cotton (13.20± 1.27 mm) but significantly differed from abutilon (13.0± 0.17 mm).