Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

INTERBREEDING STATUS OF HELICOVERPA ARMIGERA HUBNER (LEPIDOPTERA: NOCTUIDAE) COLLECTED FROM DIFFERENT HOSTS AND AGROCLIMATIC ZONES OF PUNJAB

Arshdeep K. Gill and Ramesh Arora

Abstract

In India cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera occurs as a major pest on many economically important crops, including cotton, pigeonpea, chickpea, Egyptian clover, tomato, okra, and blackgram, etc. The present studies were undertaken to find out the interbreeding status of seven different populations of H. Armigera infesting different hosts as well as those collected from Egyptian clover across Punjab during year 2012 and 2013. Total two hundered sixty crosses were analysed and revealed significant differences among different host and geographic populations with respect to fecundity and hatchability but all the populations were freely crossable with each other. Among different crosses infesting different hosts, minimum fecundity was recorded in cotton×sunflower (172.20 eggs per female) which was on par with its reciprocal cross (188.90 eggs per female) and sunflower×pigeonpea (195.30 eggs per female). The Latter also recorded minimum per cent egg hatch among all the crosses (64.11%). Maximum fecundity and per cent egg hatch was recorded in cotton×pigeonpea cross (384.90 eggs per female and 79.86%, respectively). Among the crosses of H. armigera populations collected from different agroclimatic zones, maximum fecundity and per cent egg hatch was recorded in Central plain zone×Sub mountain zone (272.20 eggs per female and 80.12%, respectively) and minimum in case of Sub mountain zone×Western zone cross (64.25 eggs per female and 65.88%, respectively).