Reproductive rhythms of the tobacco cutworm, Spodoptera litura (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

The tobacco cutworm, Spodoptera litura is aserious polyphagous pest. The laboratoryinvestigations of lifespan reproductive patternsdescribed in this paper have shown that all adultactivities took place during the scotophase. Afteremergence, calling, courtship and mating eventsincreased with time and peaked in the second night.Mating peak were always following the calling andcourtship peaks. Most paired insects performedthe first mating within the 2nd day afteremergence and peaked at midnight while rematingpeaked at dawn. Paired insects could mate up to 4times, with an average of 1.9 ± 0.4 matings.Females started to lay eggs a few hours (≥3h) afterthe first mating (these eggs are fertilized andhatched) and oviposition peaked in the 3rd nightafter emergence. Dissection of dead femalesshowed the number of spermatophores in femalebursa copulatrix was equal to the number ofmatings observed