Seasonal Light-Trap Collections of Lepidopterous Cotton Insects in South Texas1

Abstract

Light-trap collections over a 5-year period at 5 locations in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas revealed that 3 species having cotton as their main larval host—pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders); cotton leafworm, Alabama argillacea (Hubner); and tobacco budworm, Heliothis virescens (F.) —attained peak abundance of adults in August during most years. This is the period of cotton maturity and stalk destruction in that area. Three other species also found on cotton, but more omnivorous in nature—the bollworm, Heliothis zea (Boddie); cabbage looper, Trichoplusia ni (Hubner); and salt-marsh caterpillar, Estigmene acrea (Drury) —showed peak abundance earlier than the 3 first-mentioned species and had minor peaks of abundance in the spring and fall.