Influence of Different Seed Colour Varieties of Sesame on the Biology of Rice Moth, Corcyra cephalonica (Noctuidae: Lepidoptera)

A laboratory experiment was conducted to study the bionomics of Corcyra cephalonica on different coloured sesame genotypes viz., Swetha (white), GT-10 (black), and YLM-17 (brown). According to the results, the duration of egg, larvae, pupae and adult were observed to be significantly longest (6.40, 31.16,14.87 and 10.70 days, respectively) in black seeded genotype GT-10. Whereas, it was shortest (3.64, 24.12, 7.80 and 7.26 days, respectively) in white seeded genotype Swetha. All tested sesame genotypes showed significant impact on the head capsule width, body length and width of different larval instars. Based on biological and morphometric parameters, black seeded genotype (GT-10) was less suitable for the Corcyra cephalonica development, while, white seeded genotype (Swetha) was most suitable.