Department of Agricultural Entomology, Centre for Plant Protection Studies, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-641 003, Tamil Nadu (India).
*Present Address: National Research Centre for Cashew, Shanthigodu, Puttur (D.K.)-574 202, Karnataka (India).
Relative multiplication of Helopeltis antonii Sign. was studied on its three main host plants (neem, guava and cashew). The net reproductive rate indicating the total female births (RO) was 65.63, 40.21 and 22.17; the population increased with an infinitesimal rate (rm) of 0.1255, 0.0857 and 0.1215; and finite rate (A) of 1.134, 1.09 and 1.129 female per day and a generation was completed in 33.35, 43.12 and 25.51 days on neem, gauva and cashew, respectively. The stable age distribution (%) of eggs, nymphs and adults on these three hosts ranged from 65.883–68.499, 27.675–29.233 and 4.146–4.888, respectively.
