Temperature impacts on the eggplant shoot and fruit borer Leucinodes orbonalis: a life table approach

The eggplant shoot and fruit borer (ESFB), Leucinodes orbonalis Guenee (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) is a notorious insect pest that causes havoc across all eggplant cultivation areas in Bangladesh. Remarkably, its relationship with environmental factors such as temperature is not clearly defined. We measured the effects of a range of temperatures (22, 24, 26, 28, and 30 °C) on the population growth parameters of ESFB under laboratory conditions (60 ± 5% relative humidity and 16 L:8 D photoperiod), developing an age-stage, two-sex life table. Results indicate that temperature significantly reduced development times and adult total lifespan and affected ESFB life table parameters ( P