Department of Entomology, Agricultural College, Bapatla-522 101, Andhra Pradesh (India).
The study on mating disruption of Spodoptera litura (F.) infesting groundnut was undertaken during 1992 at the farm of Agricultural College, Bapatla (India). The synthetic sex pheromone of S. litura comprising Z, E, 9–11 tetra decadienyl acetate and 2, E, 9–12 tetra decadienyl acetate in 10:1 @10 mg/dispenser (50 gm a.i./ha) was used for mating disruption. Observations showed that moth catch in pheromone traps, the egg masses, and larvae in mating disruption plot, were significantly low when compared with the control throughout the crop growth. Xigh concentration of synthetic sex pheromone released from many sources led to effective mating disruption in S. litura adults. Due to the confused state, males exhibited their inability to locate the females for copulation, thereby declining the population significantly in the next generation.
