Use of artificial diet for testing toxicity of NPV on Helicoverpa armigera

Helicoverpa armigera is common pest of many vegetables and all leguminous plants etc. Being a polyphagous pest, it feeds on every plant parts causing variety of damages and decreases crop production. Present experiment was setup to verify the specific effect of NPV (Nuclear polyhydrosis virus) on target insect pest reared on artificial diet. This method will eliminate the possible effect of other natural diet related issues to infer the mortality of H. armigera by NPV. Third and fourth instars were feed with artificial diet as control and same inoculated with NPV. The mortality was observed for ten days. Then the data was analyzed statistically to determine the variations in toxicity of NPV and natural death. Larval mortality in NPV infected artificial diet was significantly high as compared to artificial diet (control).