Comparative performance of the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) on various host plants

Abstract

The effect of various host plants; chickpea (varieties Arman, Hashem, Azad and Binivich), bean varieties (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), common bean (Khomein), white kidney bean (Dehghan), red kidney bean (Goli), cowpea (variety Mashhad) and tomato (variety Meshkin) on the life table parameters of the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) were evaluated under laboratory conditions (25 ± 1 °C, 65 ± 5 % RH and a 16:8 h light:dark photoperiod). Records for larval period, pupal period, and development time of H. armigera were longest on tomato (24.9, 15.1, and 45.4 days, respectively) and shortest on chickpea Arman (17.5, 9.1, and 31.7 days, respectively). Among various host plants fecundity (total number of eggs laid per female) was highest (2,665 eggs) on chickpea Arman and the lowest (700 eggs) on tomato. The net reproductive rate (R0) was significantly affected by various host plants being highest on chickpea Arman (1,422) and lowest on tomato (111.3 females/female/generation). The highest and lowest intrinsic rates of natural increase (rm) were observed on chickpea Arman (0.244 day−1) and tomato (0.123 day−1) varieties, respectively. Cluster analysis of the life table parameters of H. armigera on various host plants indicated that tomato, in comparison to other plants was an unsuitable host to H. armigera.