تأثیر رژیم‌ غذایی مصنوعی بر پایه میزبان‌های مختلف بقولات روی شاخص‌های تغذیه‌ای کرم غوزه پنبه، Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

The cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is one of the polyphagous pests of agricultural crops with global dispersal. In this research, the effects of various legume seeds, including broad bean cultivars (Barekat, Mahta, Saraziri, Feyz and Shadan), white kidney bean (Dehghan cultivar), common bean (Khomein cultivar), red kidney bean (Goli cultivar), cowpea (Arabi and Mashhad cultivars) based on an artificial diet were assessed on feeding performances of H. armigera in a growth chamber at 25 ± 1°C, 60 ± 5% RH, and a photoperiod of 16:8 (L:D) hours. H. armigera larvae were collected from the tomato field in the Behbahan region (Khuzestan province). Before starting the experiments, larvae were reared on an artificial diet based on each legume seed powder for two generations. The first and second instar larvae of H. armigera were reared together in plastic dishes until the emergence of third instar larvae, afterwards which they were separately reared in Petri dishes to prevent any cannibalistic behavior. The results showed that the highest whole larval instars weight (74.99 mg), larval gain weight (31.58 mg) and feces produced values (97.90 mg) were achieved on white kidney bean Dehghan host, and the lowest larval weights were achieved in larval fed on Khomein (52.16 mg) and Mahta (52.38 mg) hosts. The highest values of food consumed was detected on the Mashhad host (153.21 mg), and the lowest was also recorded on the Mahta host (113.91 mg). Furthermore, the highest value of efficiency of conversion of ingested food )ECI) came from larvae that fed on white kidney bean (22.34 %) host, while the relative lower value was observed on common bean (8.30 %) and Mahta (8.48 %) hosts. In addition, the lowest value of efficiency of conversion of digested food (ECD) was observed on broad bean Mahta and common bean (22.13 and 22.53 %, respectively), and the highest value was obtained on red kidney bean (62.18 %). The lowest value of relative consumption rate (RCR) was recorded on broad bean Barekat and the highest value was observed on red kidney bean (0.95 mg/mg/day) and cowpea Arabi (0.93 mg/mg/day) and Mashhad (1.02 mg/mg/day). The highest value of relative growth rate (RGR) was found on white kidney bean (0.201 mg/mg/day) and red kidney bean (0.192 mg/mg/day) legumes, while the lowest value was observed on common bean (0.059 mg/mg/day). The results indicated that Khomein and Mahta cultivars were unsuitable hosts for growth and feeding of H. armigera. Furthermore, the findings revealed that artificial diets containing Dehghan and Goli cultivars were suitable diets for feeding of the cotton bollworm, which can be useful in laboratory rearing of H. armigera involved in the mass production system of biological control agents.