Developmental parameters of Opisina arenosella Walker (Lepidoptera: Oecophoridae) on alternative host plants

<p>Survival and development of <em>Opisina arenosella</em> Walker (Lepidoptera: Oecophoridae), the leaf eating caterpillar of coconut,&nbsp;were studied on three host plants on which&nbsp;comparatively high feeding rates were observed:&nbsp;<em>Artocarpus heterophyllus </em>Lam.<em>&nbsp;</em>(Jack fruit), <em>Elaeis guineensis </em>Jacq.<em>&nbsp;</em>(Oil palm) and <em>Anacardium occidentale </em>L. (Cashew), plus&nbsp;coconut palm&nbsp;(<em>Cocos nucifera</em> L.). A&nbsp;freshly hatched first instar <em>O. arenosella</em> larva was transferred&nbsp;onto the leaf in a glass beaker&nbsp;and reared&nbsp;on them. Fresh leaves were provided every 48 h until&nbsp;pupation of <em>O. arenosella</em> larvae.&nbsp;The larval period, pupal period and the longevity of the&nbsp;successfully developing adult female moths were recorded.&nbsp;For each plant species, there were ten replicates yielding&nbsp;adult moths. Data on the length of <em>O. arenosella</em> developmental&nbsp;stages and adult longevity had homogenous&nbsp;variance (Bartlett&rsquo;s test on residuals from ANOVA of&nbsp;developmental time across plant species: Larval period,&nbsp;v2 = 5.13, df = 3, P = 0.163; Pupal period, v2 = 0.15,&nbsp;df = 3, P = 0.986; Longevity, v2 = 1.58, df = 3,&nbsp;P = 0.664) and were normally distributed (Shapiro&ndash;Wilk&nbsp;test: Larval period, W = 0.978, P = 0.632; Pupal period,&nbsp;W = 0.981, P = 0.714; Longevity, W = 0.974,&nbsp;P = 0.472). Thus, the effects of plant species on each of&nbsp;these measures were tested using one-way ANOVA in&nbsp;GenStat.&nbsp;Aggregation of factor levels was used to evaluate&nbsp;differences between treatments when overall results were&nbsp;significant (Crawley 1993).&nbsp;The larval period differed significantly across&nbsp;all four plant species presented and was shortest when on&nbsp;coconut. Pupal periods were also shortest on&nbsp;coconut but did not differ among larvae fed on the three&nbsp;intercrops. The&nbsp;longevity of adult females was&nbsp;unaffected by the species of plant on which larvae had fed.</p>