Development of castor based oligidic diet for tobacco caterpillar, Spodoptera litura (Fabricius) and its comparative study with other artificial and natural diets

Abstract

The present research was aimed to study the development of castor based oligidic diet for tobacco caterpillar, Spodoptera litura (Fabricius) and its comparative study with other artificial and natural diets. Study was carried out at Department of Agricultural Entomology, Kerala Agricultural University during 2015-16. The results revealed that populations reared on castor based oligidic diet showed a significant reduction in total larval period (13.08 days) and total life period (32.66 days) with high development indices and survival per cent (73.26) when compared to populations raised on natural diets.