Vol. 11, Special Issue 4 (2022)

Author(s):
NJ Chaudhary, PH Rabari and CM Muralidharan

Abstract:
An attempt was made to find out the influence of biochemical constituents and epicuticular wax content in different types of cabbage with life stages of P. xylostella. Diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella is the serious and cosmopolitan pest for crops and vegetables especially cabbage all over the world. The investigation on comparative biology of diamondback moth on cabbage was carried out at Department of Entomology, Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University, during 2018-19. The study covered comparative biology of diamondback moth on chinese, purple and green cabbage. The Maximum length and breadth was recorded on green cabbage 0.49 ± 0.05 and 0.25 ± 0.02 mm while it was minimum on chinese (0.46 ± 0.04 and 0.24 ± 0.02 mm). Maximum hatching per cent was observed on chinese cabbage (93.22%) while, it was minimum on purple cabbage (86.10%). Total life duration of diamondback moth varied from 24 to 42 days on three different cabbage hosts. The duration of male and female was recorded maximum on purple cabbage 32.62 ± 0.39 and 35.0 ± 0.57 days, followed by chinese cabbage 28.03 ± 0.34 and 29.04 ± 0.18 days. The total duration observed on green cabbage was 26.70 ± 0.10 and 28.52 ± 0.3 days for male and female. The per-oviposition period of female were 1.35 ± 0.12, 1.45 ± 0.16, 1.60 ± 0.31 days on green, chinese and purple cabbage, respectively. The oviposition period was 2.67 ± 0.42 days with maximum on purple cabbage followed by chinese cabbage and green cabbage with an average of 2.52 ± 0.37 and 2.30 ± 0.62 days. The post oviposition period was 2.47 ± 0.18, 3.02 ± 0.52 and 3.86 ± 0.20 days on green, chinese and purple. The highest fecundity of 45.62 ± 0.52 eggs per female was observed on green cabbage followed by 40.12 ± 0.52 eggs on chinese cabbage and 26.50 ± 0.37 eggs on purple cabbage. The study clearly indicated that the biochemical constituents and epicuticular wax content greatly influenced on the life cycle of P. xylostella. Among the cabbage types P. xylostella took maximum duration to complete the life cycle on purple cabbage, whereas minimum time in green cabbage. For chinese cabbage total life period was in between the purple and green cabbage.