Immature stages of Spodoptera albula (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae): Developmental parameters and host plants

Débora G Montezano,Tarciso M Bortolin,Patrícia Pezzi,Edegar Fronza,Priscila C Luz,Daniel R Sosa-Gómez,Vânia F Roque-Specht,Neiva M Barros,Alexandre Specht

doi:10.1590/s0001-37652013000100013

Abstract

This study aimed to detail the temporal and morphological parameters of the immature stages of Spodoptera albula (Walker 1857) under controlled conditions (25 ± 1°C, 70 ± 10% RH and 14 hour photophase) and to gather information about their larval host plants. For this purpose, a new rearing method and artificial diet was employed and validated. The viability of the egg, larval, pupal and pre-pupal stages was 94.54, 97.33, 93.84 and 92.34%, respectively. The average duration of the egg, larval, pupal and pre-pupal stages was 4.14, 16.37, 1.69, and 9.34 days, respectively. During the larval stage, 80.85% of females and 93.99% of males passed through six and remaining through seven instars, with significant larval protandry. The larvae that developed through six and seven instars exhibited a mean growth rate of 1.58 and 1.48, respectively. Fifty five host plant species belonging to 29 families are listed. The female pupae were significantly larger, exhibiting protogyny. Both the rearing methods as well as the larval diet proved adequate, providing more detailled observations of the biological cycle, especially the larval stage, and resulting in an overall survival of almost 80%.

Highlights

The genus Spodoptera Guenée, 1852 (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae: Noctuinae) (Lafontaine and Schmidt 2010) is cosmopolitan and includes many of the most important agricultural caterpillars (Pogue 2002)
The larvae of S. albula usually migrate to crops, both coming from the various weeds that are between the rows and can be their host plants (Hallman 1979), as well as along the edges (González-B 1966)
Beyond its great voracity and reproductive capacity (Stoyan and Machado 1970, Martin Zequeira 1982, Novo Padrino et al 1984, 1985, Novo Padrino and Martínez Reyes 1985, Páez Gázquez and Novo Padrino 1987, La Rosa et al 1992), S. albula is tolerant to several chemical insecticides (Gloria-B 1975, Savoie 1988) and to the Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1Ac gene (Zenner-de-Polanía et al 2008, Amaya et al 2009)

Summary

Introduction

The genus Spodoptera Guenée, 1852 (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae: Noctuinae) (Lafontaine and Schmidt 2010) is cosmopolitan and includes many of the most important agricultural caterpillars (Pogue 2002). Spodoptera albula (Walker 1857) has Beside being polyphagous, the larvae of S. albula usually migrate to crops, both coming from the various weeds that are between the rows and can be their host plants (Hallman 1979), as well as along the edges (González-B 1966) This species represents a potential risk, making it unfeasible to develop important crops such as tobacco (Stoyan and Machado 1970, Novo Padrino et al 1984, 1985, Páez Gázquez and Novo Padrino 1987), cotton (Alcaraz Vieco 1962, González-B 1966), tomato (Gloria-B 1975), cabbage (Armstrong (1994), sesame, soybean (Hallman 1979, 1983), peanuts (Teixeira et al 2001), sunflower (Pruett and Guamán 2001), papaya (Semillas del Caribe 2010) and even seedling production in forestry nurseries (Vázquez et al 1999). Its importance as a pest and its tolerance to several chemical products motivated the identification of pheromonal components to assist the integrated pest management of this species in cotton (Bestmann et al 1988) and in melon crops (Dunkleblum et al 1995).

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Results