M.K. MAHLA, H. SWAMI, LEKHA AND GAURANG CHHANGANI

The biology of fall armyworm, (J.E. Smith) on sorghum was studied during Spodoptera frugiperda Kharif, 2019 under laboratory conditions (26±2°C temperature and 75±5% relative humidity) at the Department of Entomology, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, MPUAT, Udaipur. The nucleus culture of FAW was initiated with the larvae collected from sorghum and maize field, Agronomy farm, RCA, Udaipur and were morphologically identified. These larvae were reared on artificial diet. The freshly laid eggs from this nucleus culture were taken to study the biology of fall armyworm. After hatching, newly emerged 40 larvae were individually reared on fresh small bits of sorghum leaves, these leaves were changed daily as food. After the completion of larval period, the pupae were transferred gently into egg laying chambers for the emergence of the adults and the chamber were provided with 10% honey solution soaked cotton wicks placed separately in small petri plates. The female was observed laying eggs with the fecundity of 964 eggs. The incubation, total larval (I to VI instar), pupal, pre oviposition, oviposition and post oviposition period were recorded to be from 2-3, 12-19, 8-12, 3-4, 2-3 and 4-5 days, respectively. The male and female longevity were 7-11 and 10- 13 days, respectively. The total life cycle of male and female was observed to be 33-45 and 36-47 days, respectively.