Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, J.N. Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Adhartal, Jabalpur-482 004, Madhya Pradesh (India).
The germinating seeds of soybean, gram, wheat, sunflower and linseed were separately fed to tobacco caterpillar, Spodoptera litura Fabricius in the laboratory at ambient temperature (15–25°C). The host appeared to influence significantly the larval developmental period, its size and weight, the period and number of egg deposited and sex ratio of the progeny. On the basis of these parameters, soybean proved to be the most preferred host. On germinating seeds of soybean, the total development period was 32.67 days as against 43.72 days on linseed. The feeding capacity of S. litura larvae was maximum (162.2 mg) on soybean as compared to 117.97 mg on linseed. Linseed was the least preferred while gram and wheat were intermediate in preference.
