Mating Behavior and Oviposition Characteristics of Maruca vitrata(Fabricius)(Lepidoptera:Crambidae)
Wu Juxiang
Li Changyou
Sun Kaizhen
Zhang Zhuqing
Chi Yucheng
Zheng Guiling
Abstract：The legume pod borer,Maruca vitrata(Fabricius)(Lepidoptera:Crambidae),is an impor-tant pest of legume crops,which occurs seriously in China.In this study,mating behavior and oviposition characteristics were observed in laboratory.The results showed that the courtship and mating behaviors of leg-ume pod borer adults began from the 2nd day after emergence,and reached the peak at 3 to 5 days after emer-gence.The mating activity mainly occurred between 21:00 and 06:30 with the peak at 23:00 to 03:00.In general,the adults only mate once in the lifetime,but some could mate 2 to 3 times,and the average mating time was 53.1 minutes.The mating rate and the number of eggs were higher when the male to female ratio was 1∶1 or there were more male adults.In the range of 20 to 27 ℃,the mating rate increased with the increase of temperature.When the temperature was over 25 ℃,the mating rate was over 50％and the average number of eggs was over 800.The female adults started to lay eggs on the 3rd day after emergence,and reached the peak at 7 to 8 days;the number of eggs could reach 80％of the total number on the 12th day.These results could provide theoretical basis for indoor feeding and effective control of legume pod borer.
Keywords：Maruca vitrataMating behaviorOviposition characteristicsTemperatureSex ratio
Publication Date：2025-03-30
Online Publishing Date：2026-05-22(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：6( 146-151 )