Effect of Diapause on Development and Reproduction of the Stem Borers Busseola fusca (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and Chilo partellus (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

Abstract

During diapause, larvae of the stem borers Busseola fusca (Fuller) and Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) progressively decreased in weight at the rate of 8.7 and 4.6 mg per week, respectively. Larvae lost 50% of their initial body mass and had up to seven stationary molts. Larvae became lessactive and lost pigmentation. The longer the larvae remained in diapause, the lighter in weight the emerging moths were, with fewer eggs and oocytes. After 8 mo in diapause, the emerging moths weighed about half as much and had about half as many eggs and oocytes as moths that emerged from nondiapausing larvae.