Australian Journal of Zoology (1989) 37, 665-673

S. Firempong and M.P. Zalucki (1989)
Host plant preferences of populations of Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae) from different geographic locations
Australian Journal of Zoology 37 (6), 665-673
Abstract: Helicoverpa armigera in Australia is found in many different geographic locations and has been recorded on a large number of host plants. We partly investigated the nature of this polyphagy by offering moths from six different sources the same set of host plants in oviposition trials. Laboratory H. armigera ranked the plants offered into the following categories: most preferred-tobacco, maize, sunflower; least preferred-cabbage, pigweed and linseed; intermediate-soybean, cotton and lucerne. Moths reared from field collected larvae showed a similar basic rank order, although there were a number of differences between populations. Further work will be needed to clarify if these small differences represent real geographic variation or simply reflect differences between batches of test plants. Tobacco and sunflower were consistently ranked highly by virtually all populations and, cotton, on which H. armigera is a major pest, was ranked very low. The possibility of exploiting the non- attractiveness of cotton in pest management is discussed.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Myron P. Zalucki

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
general biology - morphology - evolution

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Helicoverpa armigera	Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)
	Helicoverpa armigera	Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum)
	Helicoverpa armigera	Cotton (Gossypium)