Two-sex life table analysis of population characteristics of almond moth, Cadra cautella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) on dry and semi-dry date palm varieties

Life table of almond moth, Cadra cautella Walker was studied on four main dry and semi-dry date palm varieties (Deyri, Zahedi, Piarom, and Rabbi) of Iran under laboratory conditions. Data were analyzed based on the age-stage, two-sex life table theory. Duration of total preadult stages was 42.54, 45.79, 51.48 and 50.41 days on Deyri, Zahedi, Piarom, and Rabbi, respectively. The highest fecundity of female almond moth on date palm varieties was 245.29 eggs on Zahedi. The intrinsic rate of increase (rm) on different varieties of date palm ranged from 0.069 d-1 (on Piarom) to 0.105 d-1 (on Deyri). The highest net reproductive rate (R0) was on Deyri (95.81 offspring) and the lowest value was on Rabbi variety (42.37 offspring). Our results showed that the highest rm, the largest fecundity and the shortest generation time of almond moth were observed on Deyri variety. It was concluded that among date palm varieties, Deyri was the most favorable host plant for almond moth reproduction performance.