Nutrition of Pseudaletia sequax Franclemont, 1951 (Lepidaptera: Noctuidae) on wheat

Abstract

The present work was conducted during 1986/1987 at the Faculdade de Agronomia, UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Brazil, under laboratory conditions with a temperature of 21º ± 2ºC, photoperiod of twelve hours, and RH of 80% ± 10%. lts objective was to study the nutrition of Pseudaletia sequax Franclemont, 1951 (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) fed on wheat leaves, Triticum aestivum (L.), cv. UFRGS 82T780. The consumption index (CI) and growth rate (IR) were higher in the fourth instar. The approximate digestibility (AD) decreased gradually, while there was greater ingested food conversion (ECI) and digested food conversion (ECD), with larval development. The greatest food consumption, in weight, occurred in the last two instars