Abstract

The fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith, 1797), is the most important noctuid pest in the Americas and has recently become an invasive pest in Africa and in India. Having a detailed and standardized record of the biology and the larval development of S. frugiperda will be critical to further studies on integrated pest management, toxicology, and applied ecology. This study reports the temporal and morphological parameters of the immature stages of S. frugiperda for larvae fed on artificial diet under controlled conditions (25±1 °C, 70±10% RH and 14 hour photophase). The survival of the egg, larval, prepupal and pupal stages was 97.40, 98.33, 99.32 and 97.95%, respectively. The average duration of the egg, larval, prepupal and pupal stages were 2.69, 13.73, 1.43, and 9.24 days, respectively. All larvae passed through six instars, with significantly slower larval development for females. However, females had faster pupal development and heavier pupae, thus total time from egg to adult was not significantly different between sexes. With the growing importance of this highly polyphagous species, centralizing the fragmented information in the literature and standardizing its rearing methods will improve and facilitate future studies on this pest.

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