Laboratory Rearing of Cotton Bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) (Lepidoptera:Noctuidae) Wild Colony on Different Artificial Diets

The cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera Hübner (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is a major pest in agricultural areas in the world. It is crucial to study the pest’s biology, behaviour, insecticides resistance and control methods in the laboratory conditions in all year around without depending on the natural host plant. In order to do that, the pest should be reared on artificial diet continously. The aim of the study is to test known artificial diets for laboratory rearing and adaptation of the cotton bollworm and also modify them if necessary to find out the best larval diet. The bollworm larvae were brought to the laboratory with infested tomatoes from Çanakkale provinces. Six artificial diets were prepared with basic ingredients including pinto bean flour, soybean meal, corn meal, chickpea meal, wheat germ, brewer’s yeast, torula yeast, sucrose, vitamins and mold inhibitors. Larvae also reared on sliced tomato fruits as control during the experiments. Some biological parameters such as number of larval stages, survival of larval and pupal stages and development times, pupal weights and adult emergence rate were determined on six different artificial diets in the laboratory. As a result, Diet I, originally developed for Grapholita molesta that supported larval development succesfully and completed 11.6 ± 1.5 days and had 331.8 mg pupal weights. Another diet called as Diet II, originally developed for Lepidopteran species, also succesfully used to rear the cotton bollworm larvae having 16.6 ± 1.4 days of larval durations. The cotton bollworm was reared consecutive four generations on both diets. The study results showed that out of six tested diets, Diet I and Diet II were sufficient and nutrionally suitable for laboratory uses and adaptation of wild colony.