Assessing the impact of altering temperatures on food consumption and nutritional indices of P. gossypiella in Bt cotton

Abstract The study on ‘Influence of temperature on food consumption and nutritional indices of pink bollworm in Bt cotton’ was studied at various alternate temperatures (20:30, 24:30, 28:30, 20:35, 24:35, 28:35, 20:40, 24:40 and 28:40oC) in Integrated Pest Management Laboratory, Department of Entomology, PAU, Ludhiana during 2022-23 cotton growing season. The experiment was conducted on the second, third and fourth larval instars of pink bollworm and the results revealed that the maximum amount of food consumed was recorded at the temperature combination of 28:35oC for all the larval instars. The nutritional indices like Consumption index (CI), Relative Growth Rate (RGR), Approximate digestibility (AD) and Efficiency of conversion of ingested food (ECI) of second, third and fourth larval instars shown highest values at altering temperature combination of 28:35oC. The food consumption increased from second to third larval instar and it gradually decreased from third instar to fourth instar.