Lepidoptera INDEX

Recently, comprehensive World Wide Web (Internet) databases have been established on insect pheromones and semiochemicals The Pherolist , a database of chemicals identified from sex pheromone glands of female lepidopteran insects and other chemicals attractive to male moths (Am et al., 1999) and The Pherobase , a database of pheromones and semiochemicals for Lepidoptera and other insect orders (El-Sayed, 2006). These large databases on behavior modifying chemicals have extensive cross-linkages for animal taxa, indexes of compounds and source (reference) indexes. The indexes include those compounds cited in this chapter and many more with pheromone and semiochemical function acetate esters, diols, epoxides, ethers, ketones and secondary alcohols. For example, The Pherolist reports approximately 90 epoxy derivatives of C17-C23 of n-alkancs, mono-alkenes and di-alkenes as insect semiochemicals. 

Kumar, J.S., Kumar, N.S., 2011. Production efficiency of cocoon shell of silkworm, Bombyx mori L. (Bombycidae Lepidoptera), as an index for evaluating the nutritive value of mulberry, moms sp. (Moraceae), varieties. Psyche A Journal of Entomology 2011, 1—3. 

Host plant suitability involves various plant characteristics and insect herbivore adaptations as well as modification of both the plant and the insect by abiotic and biotic factors in their commimity. The post-ingestive growth performance of Lepidoptera (and perhaps most other leaf-chewing insects as well) is determined to a large extent by plant chemical quality (i.e., nutrients and allelo-chemics) and can be indexed by leaf water-nitrogen composition. 

Leafedisk Antifeedant Bioassay Ten l.O cm sweet potato leaf disks were placed in marked wells in an agar-coated petri dish. Five disks were alternatively treated with 10 pi of plant extract (100 pg/cm ) or solvent (acetone or methanol). Five third instar Spodoptera litura (Lepidoptera Noctuidae) larvae per dish and three dishes were used per treatment. The treated dishes were placed in an incubator at 27 C and 75-80% RH for 16-18 hours in darkness. The leaf surface consumed was measured with a video camera interfaced to a personal computer as described earlier (6). The feeding index was calculated as 1= %T / (%T + %C) (%T = % of treated disks consumed, %C = % of control disks consumed). An arbitrary level of I<20 was used as the criteria to determine effective feeding deterrents (7). 

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