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Biometric assessment of cucumber moth, Diaphania indica (Saunders) on bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.)

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Abstract

Cucumber moth, Diaphania indica (Saunders) is a polyphagous insect, becoming one of the major constraints in cost-effective cultivation of bitter gourd. As the detailed knowledge of the biology of insect-pest is essential for the application of control methods, the biometrics of cucumber moth, D. indica was studied on bitter gourd in laboratory conditions during 2019 at Insect Culture Laboratory, Department of Entomology, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana. Gravid females laid 93.6 ± 44.14 eggs having the morphometrics of 0.7 ± 0.02 and 0.42 ± 0.02 mm in terms of length and breadth, respectively. The mean larval duration of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th instar was observed to be 1.49, 2.41, 3.59, 2.54 and 3.3 days, respectively with the total mean larval period of 13.33 days, while length and breadth varied from 1.75 to 21.65 and 0.26 to 2.94 mm for 1st to 5th instar. The pupal period of D. indica lasted for 7.93 ± 1.06 days which further accounted for the average total life cycle of 26.91 ± 1.01 days. The pre-oviposition, oviposition and post-oviposition periods were recorded as 1.5 ± 0.53, 3.9 ± 0.74 and 1.9 ± 0.74 days, respectively with sex ratio of 1:1.1 (male: female). The longevity of male and female moths was 6.1 ± 0.71 and 7.69 ± 1.22 days, respectively.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to Head of the Department, Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India, for providing facilities, input requirements and advice necessary for the experimentation.

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This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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  1. Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, 125004, Haryana, India

    Sunidhi Pilania, Surender Singh Yadav, Sunita Yadav, Krishna Rolania, Lomash Kumar, Jyoti Indora & Amit Kumar

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  1. Sunidhi Pilania
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Pilania, S., Yadav, S.S., Yadav, S. et al. Biometric assessment of cucumber moth, Diaphania indica (Saunders) on bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.). Int J Trop Insect Sci 42, 507–518 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-021-00566-9

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