Department of Agricultural, Entomology Talmil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-3641 003, India.
A field experiment was conducted in Tamil Nadu, India to find out the efficacy of diflubenzuron (1-(4-chlorophenyl)-3-(2, 6-difluorobenzoyl) urea) in controlling tobacco caterpillar Spodoptera litura F. on groundnut Arachis hypogaea L. and the efficacy was compared with chlorpyriphos at normal and reduced dose. Chlor-pyriphos caused quick mortality immediately after treatment while diflubenzuron caused considerable mortality after 144 hrs of treatment. Combination of diflubenzuron with chlorpyriphos had no significant additive effect that chlorporiphos alone. Delay in mortality in diflubenzuron treatment may be due to the reason that the chemical acts and causes mortality only during the time of moulting.
