ABSTRACT
Helicoverpa armigera (Hiibner) has one of the widest distributions of any agricultural pest, occurring throughout Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, southern Europe and many Pacific islands (Zalucki et al. 1986). Worldwide, H. armigera has been recorded from at least 60 cultivated and 67 wild host plants (Bilapate 1981; Reed and Pawar 1982). The principal agricultural crop hosts of H. armigera are cotton, pulses, tobacco, soybean, rapeseed, groundnut, safflower, sunflower, sorghum, maize, potato and vegetables. Helicoverpa armigera is also one of the 15 major pests of forestry in Madhya Pradesh, India (Khan et al. 1988). Frequent outbreaks of H. armigera are common in India, particularly in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, leading to various social and economical problems. Worldwide losses are estimated from $1 billion in the US and $25 million in Australia (Fitt 1989). Heavy losses because of H. armigera damage are mainly due to the feeding preference of the larvae for plant structures that are high in protein content, particularly the reproductive structures and growing points, e. g. cotton buds and bolls, com ears, tobacco buds, sorghum panicles, and flowers and pods of
1National Centre for Integrated Pest Management (NCIPM), LBS Building, Pusa, New Delhi 110 012, India. TPTrivedi_NCIPM@Rediffmail. com departm ent of Entomology, Indian Institute of Pulses Research (ICAR), Kalyanpur, Kanpur 208 024, Uttar Pradesh, India. departm ent of Entomology, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, BHU, Varanasi 221 005, Uttar Pradesh, India. departm ent of Entomology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana 141 004, Punjab, India.
