Performance of artificial diets on the growth and development of Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner)

In studies, aimed to optimizing the substrate for mass rearing of Helicoverpa armigera larvae, five artificial diets along with two natural diets of soaked chickpea and pigeonpea seeds were used. The Arme's diet recorded the least larval development period (15.83 days) of H. armigera, maximum per cent pupation (96.66%), maximum pupal weight (321.33 mg) and least developmental period of pupa (10.64 days) over PDBC's diet, Jayaraj and Sathiah's diet, proposed diet I and proposed diet II. Whereas, PDBC's diet showed maximum larval weight (494.40 mg) in last larval instar, longer adult longevity with highest fecundity (521 egg/female) and viability of 89.07 per cent as well as recorded less incubation period (3.67 days) over other diets. However, maximum oviposition period (4.24 days) was found in Jayaraj and Sathiah's diet. On the basis of the economics, PDBC's diet, Arme's diet and Jayaraj and Sathia's diet were found cheaper, required Rs. 0.481, Rs. 0.494 and Rs. 0.497 for production of 1000 neonate larvae, respectively.