ABSTRACT
Cotton bollw orm /legum e pod borer, Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is the most important pest on a wide variety of food, fibre, oilseed, fodder and horticultural crops. Its significance as a pest is based on the peculiarities of its biology such as high mobility, polyphagy, high reproductive rate and diapause. Its preference for flowering/fruiting parts of high-value crops such as cotton, vegetables, com and pulses confers a high socio-economic cost to its depredations under subsistence farming in the tropics and subtropics. Agronomic factors such as high-yielding varieties, increased use of irrigation and fertilizers and large-scale planting of alternate crop hosts have contributed to increased severity of this pest (Reed and Pawar 1982; Fitt 1989). However, regional and local differences in host preference can give rise to differences in pest status on particular crops, e. g. in northern and southern
international Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru 502 324, Andhra Pradesh, India, h. sharma@cgiar. org 2lndian Institute of Pulses Research, Department of Entomology, Kanpur 208 024, Uttar Pradesh, India. departm ent of Entomology, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar 263 145, Uttaranchal, India. 4Rajendra Agricultural University, Tirhut College of Agriculture, Dholi, Muzaffarpur 843121, Bihar, India. departm ent of Entomology, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar 125 004, Haryana, India. 6CSIRO Entomology, Private bag 5, Wembley, WA 6913, Australia.
