author(s)
Saurabh Padamshali, Sonalika Kolhekar and Jayalaxmi Ganguli

abstract
Natural enemies like reduviid predators could be used in insect pest management particularly to manage many polyphagous lepidopteran larvae which are serious pests on a number of agricultural crops. They are less specific in their choice of prey and kill more prey than they need to satiate themselves.. Keeping this in mind an experiment was conducted in the Biocontrol laboratory, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur (Chhattisgarh) during 2018-19 to check the feeding potential of the reduviid larval predator, Rhynocoris marginatus on the factitious host Corcyra cephalonica Stainton larvae reared on crushed rice cereal under in vitro condition. It was found that the average feeding potential of first instar was 5.67 larvae/ bug, while 2nd instar nymph showed predation of 8.33 larvae/ bug. Third instar nymph showed better predatory activity than the two early instars (18.67 larvae/ bug). In the fourth instar, the mean consumption was estimated to be (27.00 larvae/ bug), whereas in fifth instar (43.67 larvae/ bug) and adults devoured a maximum number of 82.00 larvae/ bug. Hence, R. marginatus can be used as a promising bioagent for management of different lepidopteran insect-pests in all the crops which will ultimately help in sustainable crop production.