Development, reproduction and life table parameters of Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) on five main host plants

The cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner), is a destructive pest on a wide range of economic crops in many parts of the world. In this research, demographic parameters of H. armigera were determined on five host plant species including cowpea (cv. Mashhad), navy bean (cv. Dehghan), chickpea (cv. Hashem), soybean (cv. 033) and corn (cv. Single cross 704). All experiments were carried out under laboratory conditions at 25 ± 1°C, 65 ± 5% RH and a photoperiod of 16: 8 (L: D) h. The results revealed that females and males had the shortest development time on chickpea (36.16 and 34.98 d, respectively) and the longest development time on corn (42.00 and 42.95 d, respectively). The highest daily and total fecundity of H. armigera were observed on cowpea and the lowest ones were on corn. The values of the intrinsic rate of increase (rm) on the above-mentioned host plants were 0.180, 0.144, 0.161, 0.161 and 0.126 day-1, respectively. Also, the values of the net reproductive rate (R0) were 365.66, 294.28, 365.67, 239.69 and 147.40 female offspring, respectively. The longest mean generation time (T) (37.90 ± 0.26 d) and doubling time (DT) (5.62 ± 0.17 d) were observed on corn. Our findings revealed that cowpea and corn were the most susceptible and resistant host plants to H. armigera, respectively.