Biology of Major Insect Pests of Carnation

Caranations are among the most popular commercial cut flowers. Among the insect pests attacking carnation, two spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae Koch and bud borer Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) were studied under laboratory conditions at the Department of Entomology, Dr Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India during 2021. Total developmental/ period of T. urticae lasted for 12.10 days. The growth parameters revealed that the gross reproductive rate, net reproductive rate (R_o), true generation time (T) and finite rate of natural increase (λ) was 91.24 eggs/ individual, 81.20 eggs/ individual, 18.73 days and 1.26 females/ day, respectively for T. urticae. The intrinsic rate of increase (r) was 0.23 females/ female/ day. Total developmental/ period for H. armigera was 32.12 days; its growth parameters revealed that the net reproductive rate (R_o) was 37.40 offsprings/ individual, intrinsic rate of increase (r) was 0.10 females/ female/ day and finite rate of natural increase (λ) was 1.10 females/ with generation time (T) being 37.94 days.