S. Ramesh BabuSRUTHI.K.K2024-10-042024-10-042024Sruthi K.K. and Babu S.R.https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810215369The destructive lepidopteran pest, fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) showed resistance to various groups of insecticides, underscoring the urgent need for economically and ecologically viable management techniques. This necessity is addressed by identifying FAW's preferred hosts and this study primarily focused on assessing the impact of different host plants and an artificial diet composed of chickpea powder, wheat germ and corn flour on various nutritional indices and biotic potential parameters of the FAW under laboratory conditions at the Department of Entomology, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Udaipur. FAW larvae completed the lifecycle in 35.92 ± 0.33 days within the host maize, with the longest duration observed in Desmodium and brinjal at 56.33 ± 0.67 days and 56.14 ± 0.94 days, respectively. The third instar larval weight was reported to be highest on maize at 0.05 ± 0.002 g and the fourth, fifth, and sixth instar’s weights were the highest on soybean and ranged from 0.15 ± 0.011 to 0.50 ± 0.01 g. Pupae development was better on an artificial diet, with a weight of 0.22 ± 0.01 g, length of 1,60 ± 0.02 cm, and width of 0.41 ± 0.004 cm. The number of egg masses and eggs laid by the adult females of FAW was observed to be the highest on the artificial diet, 13.33 ± 0.88 and 1315 ± 64.51, respectively. When examining the nutritional indices value of third instar larvae, cabbage showed the highest ECI & ECD values (23.10 ± 3.03 %, 34.64 ± 4.75 %, respectively). In contrast, these values were lowest on an artificial diet (ECI: 16.55 ± 1.19 % and ECD: 16.07 ± 1.09, respectively). The AD of the 3rd instar was the highest on an artificial diet (83.94 ± 1.14 %). The highest value of RGR and CI were observed on artificial diet (0.84 ± 0.06 g/g body wt/day and 5.10 ± 0.20 g/g body wt/day, respectively), while the lowest were on Desmodium (0.41 ± 0.02 g/g body wt/day and 2.44 ± 0.38 g/g body wt/day, respectively). In the case of fourth instar larvae, ECI was highest on brinjal (22.96 ± 1.14 %) and lowest on tomato (18.93 ± 0.65 %). ECD values were highest on cabbage (39.31 ± 2.00 %) and lowest on an artificial diet (24.19 ± 2.36 %). AD of fourth instar larvae was the highest on tomato (69.64 ± 1.73 %) and the lowest on maize (51.87 ± 1.21 %). However, RGR was the highest on brinjal (0.67 ± 0.02 g/g body wt/day). The highest CI was on soybean (3.50 ± 0.12 g/g body wt/day) and the lowest on Desmodium (1.79 ± 0.17 g/g body wt/day). The FAW's ECI value for fifth instar larvae peaked on Desmodium (23.46 ± 1.61 %) and was lowest on maize (9.15 ± 0.37 %). The highest ECD value for the fifth instar was recorded on brinjal (30.08 ± 1.08 %) and the lowest on the artificial diet (23.33 ± 0.83 %). RGR was highest on the artificial diet (0.54 ± 0.02 g/g body wt/day) and lowest on cabbage (0.19 ± 0.01 g/g body wt/day). AD reached its peak on tomato (64.26 ± 1.61 %). On the artificial diet, the CI of the fifth instar was the highest, at 3.00 ± 0.11 g/g body wt/day. The ECI of sixth instar larvae had the highest recorded on Desmodium (19.19 ± 1.68 %). ECD peaked on cabbage (26.32 ± 3.31 %) and was lowest on the artificial diet (14.29 ± 0.97 %). The highest AD value was found for tomato (58.94 ± 2.32 g/g body wt/day) and the lowest for soybean (32.79 ± 2.06 g/g body wt/day). Brinjal showed the highest RGR value (0.22 ± 0.01), while maize had the smallest (0.15 ± 0.02 g/g body wt/day). Tomato had the highest CI value for sixth instar larvae (1.64 ± 0.10 g/g body wt/day), while Desmodium had the lowest (1.00 ± 0.11 g/g body wt/day).EnglishThesis