Effect of different host plants on nutritional indices of Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Nutritional indices of whole larval instars (third, fourth and fifth instars) of Helicoverpa armigera(Hübner) on different host plants including chickpea (cultivars Arman, Hashem, Azad and Binivich),common bean (cultivar Khomein), white kidney bean (cultivar Dehghan), red kidney bean (cultivar Goli),cowpea (cultivar Mashhad), tomato (cultivar Meshkin) and potato (cultivars Agria and Satina) wasstudied under laboratory conditions (25 ± 1°C, 65 ± 5% RH and a photoperiod of 16:8 (L:D) hours). Theresults showed that the highest value of approximate digestibility (AD) was on cultivar Azad (87.896%)compared with the other hosts. Despite the larvae fed on tomato (Meshkin) had the highest value (3.955)of consumption index (CI), the lowest values of efficiency of conversion of ingested food (ECI) andefficiency of conversion of digested food (ECD) were on this host (5.748 and 7.341 %, respectively).However, the highest values of ECI (14.640 %) and ECD (21.380 %) were on cultivars Satina and Agria,respectively. The highest values of relative consumption rate (RCR) and relative growth rate (RGR) wereon cultivars Dehghan and Satina (1.528 and 0.146, respectively). Also, the lowest values of RCR or RGRwere on Meshkin (0.988 and 0.056, respectively). Regarding to the obtained results, potato and tomatowere respectively the most suitable and unsuitable hosts for feeding H. armigera.

کلیدواژه ها:

Helicoverpa armigera ، nutritional indices ، host plants ، antibiosis