Abstract
The fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith, 1797), is the most important noctuid pest in the Americas and has recently become an invasive pest in Africa and in India. Having a detailed and standardized record of the biology and the larval development of S. frugiperda will be critical to further studies on integrated pest management, toxicology, and applied ecology. This study reports the temporal and morphological parameters of the immature stages of S. frugiperda for larvae fed on artificial diet under controlled conditions (25±1 °C, 70±10% RH and 14 hour photophase). The survival of the egg, larval, prepupal and pupal stages was 97.40, 98.33, 99.32 and 97.95%, respectively. The average duration of the egg, larval, prepupal and pupal stages were 2.69, 13.73, 1.43, and 9.24 days, respectively. All larvae passed through six instars, with significantly slower larval development for females. However, females had faster pupal development and heavier pupae, thus total time from egg to adult was not significantly different between sexes. With the growing importance of this highly polyphagous species, centralizing the fragmented information in the literature and standardizing its rearing methods will improve and facilitate future studies on this pest.
Highlights
Spodoptera spp. belong to the Noctuidae family, which is the largest family of the order Lepidoptera (Zahiri et al, 2010)
A significant difference in size between sexes was detected at the end of larval development, in the fifth and sixth instar, when female larvae were bigger than males and the growth rate of female larvae was greater (Table 3)
The overall survival of immature of S. frugiperda reared on artificial diet under controlled conditions and minimal interference was approximately 93% (Table 1)
Summary
Spodoptera spp. belong to the Noctuidae family, which is the largest family of the order Lepidoptera (Zahiri et al, 2010). S. frugiperda is such a widespread pest of many crop species, detailed biological and developmental information is deficient; the majority of the literature varies in rearing methodology and sometimes does not count for differences between sexes. Detailed information on this pest’s biology and standardization of its rearing methods is necessary for the development of robust S. frugiperda integrated pest management (IPM) and insect resistance management (IRM). This study complements previous contributions on the biology of immatures and adults of S. albula (Walker, 1857) (Montezano et al, 2013a, 2014a), S. eridania (Stoll, 1782) (Montezano, Specht, Sosa-Gómez, Roque-Specht, & Barros, 2013b, 2014b), S. dolichos (Fabricius, 1794) (Montezano et al, 2015a, 2015b) and S. cosmioides (Walker, 1858) (Specht & Roque-Specht, 2016) reared under the same conditions. Montezano et al (2013a) employed and validated a methodology that incorporated detailed rearing procedures not made by others studies, e.g., a larger number of neonates evaluated individually to adult emergence, including a more complete detailing of biological parameters, with minimal interference in its development
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