Bionomics of rice swarming caterpillar, Spodoptera mauritia Boisduval
Mogili Ramaiah and T Uma Maheswari
Biology, morphometrics and growth of Spodoptera mauritia was studied by rearing Spodoptera mauritia under laboratory conditions during August 2017. The study was mainly focused on observing morphology of different stages i.e., egg, larva, pupa and adult along with duration, S. mauritia had six instars. Measurements of all the stages of insect life cycle were recorded. The width of head capsule was recorded at each moult showing a minimum and maximum of 1.45 and 1.98 mm respectively. The mean values of head capsule width observed (0.42 to 2.72 mm) and estimated (0.41 to 2.79 mm) and the progression factor in the growth of S. maurita was observed as 1.62, which indicated that an increase in head width during successive instars was slightly varying from Dyar’s law but followed geometric progression in growth.