Department of Entomology, Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur-848 125, Bihar (India).
Quantities of some important dietary constituents, viz, ascorbic acid, yeast powder, sorbic acid, formaldehyde and vitamin E varied in 1:2:3 ratio in the artificial diet based on green gram, Vigna radiata (L) Wilczek and dew gram, Vigna aconitifolia(Jacq.) Marichat. The larvae and adults of the maize stalk borer, Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) reared on such diets were exposed to 0.05 and 0.1 per cent concentrations of endosutfan films. The impact of higber quantities of ascorbic acid and yeast powder in artificial diet resulted In larvae being more tolerant to endosulfan. However, larvae obtained from artificial diet containing higher concentration of vitamin E were less tolerant to endosulfan. The susceptibility of moths obtained from diets containing three quantities of each of the five constituents did not vary significantly to 0.05 and 0.1 per cent endosulfan. The increased quantity of ascorbic acid in diet, however, produced moths relatively tolerant to endosuifan emulsion.
