Biology of fall army worm Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) on artificial diets

Fall army worm Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is one of the important invasive pests causing economic losses to maize, sorghum and other millets. This study aims to develop suitable cost-effective crop based artificial diet for its rearing and evaluates the biology under laboratory conditions. Study revealed that the least life cycle period (egg to adult) was obtained with sorghum+ chickpea based diet (D1: 31–39 days) as compared to sorghum based diet(D2: 37–44 days) and maize+ chickpea based diet (D3: 40–48 days). Fully developed larvae measured longer, broader and heavier when reared on D1, also the fecundity was maximum. A cheap artificial diet to rear S. frugiperda is thus developed in this study.