Department of Agricultural Entomology, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Madurai - 625 104, Tamil Nadu, India.
Studies on biology of Chilocorus nigrita (Fab.) revealed that total developmental period of C. nigrita was shortest (26.13 days) on Melanaspis glomerata (Green) when compared with Aspidiotus destructor (Sign.) and Hemiberlesia lataniae (Signoret). The fecundity and longevity of C. nigrita were found to be comparatively high with maximum suitability index (2.638) when reared on M. glomerata. Adults of C. nigrita was voracious than grub stage and each adult required 1195.65 ± 23.01, 1183.33 ± 52.04, 1095 ± 67.27 number of M. glomerata, A. destructor and H. lataniae while a total of 244.41 ± 4.89, 228.73 ± 6.52 and 219.73 ± 3.26 number of scale insects were consumed by grub in its all four stages, respectively. Old grubs consumed more scales than the young grubs.
