LABORATORY LIFE-FERTILITY TABLE ASSESSMENT AND FIELD BIOLOGY OF MILLET HEAD MINER (LEPIDOPTERA: NOCTUIDAE) IN NIGER

A Thesis by HAME ABDOU KADI KADI

Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE

December 1999

Major Subject: Entomology

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iii ABSTRACT

Laboratory Life-Fertility Table Assessment and Field Biology of Millet Head Miner (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in Niger. (December 1999) Hame Abdou Kadi Kadi, B.S., Texas A&M University; Co-chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Frank E. Gilstrap Co-chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. George L. Teetes

Life tables were used to study millet head miner, Heliocheilus albipunctella de Joannis, under controlled conditions in a laboratory. Population reproductive statistics were estimated and survivorship curves described. Survival, oviposition period, fecundity, and cohort development were assessed on pearl millet in a field. Longevity of females was longer and more affected by temperature than that of males. Longevity of females declined ≈0.2 d for each 2ºC increase. Millet head miner females and males survived in exclusion cages in the field for 3.1-4.0 and 3.23.8 d. Oviposition period was significantly longer at 28 (3.2 d) than 24ºC (2.3 d). Days of oviposition in the laboratory were similar to those in the field, 2.4 and 3.1 d in 1996 and 1997. Females in the laboratory oviposited more eggs at warmer than cooler temperatures. In the field, each female oviposited 29.6 and 44.9 eggs in 1996 and 1997.Cool and warm temperatures tended to increase and decrease, respectively, survival and developmental rate. More millet head miners survived better when fed Bio-Serv® than any of the millet-based diets. Fed Bio-Serv® diet, survival from eggs to adults was greatest (5.4%) at 30ºC. Developmental times from eggs to adults were

iv longest (51.1-55.4 d) when millet head miners were fed Bio-Serv® diet and shortest