Influence of temperature and carbon dioxide levels on growth and development of Spodoptera litura Fabricius on cauliflower

The studies on influence of temperature and carbon dioxide levels on growth and development of Spodoptera litura on cauliflower were conducted with six different temperature and carbon dioxide regimes viz. 25:11oC and 25:14oC at 350, 400, 450 ppm carbon dioxide concentrations. Observations on different biological indices were recorded to estimate the influence of elevated temperature and carbon dioxide on growth and development of S. litura. The study revealed temperature and carbon dioxide had significant effect on developmental indices of S. litura. It was observed that incubation period, larval duration, pupal duration, male adult longevity, female adult longevity decreased from 4.5, 23.4, 9.3, 6.8, 7.5, respectively at 25:11oC to 3.9, 21.2, 8.7, 6.5, 7.4 days respectively, at 25:14oC. Whereas fecundity of S litura increased from 363.6 to 420.9 with increase in temperature and carbon dioxide indicating reduced generation time which could lead to more number of generations per year.