Abstract

METAMORPHOSIS OF EUPLOEA CORE (COMMON CROW) ON NERIUM INDICUM (MILL.) AT ANDHRA UNIVERSITY CAMPUS, VISAKHAPATNAM

*G. Sujan Chandar, K. Ella Rao and J. B. Atluri

ABSTRACT

The Danaidae butterfly Euploea core (Common Crow) it occurs throughout the year. The larval performance and life cycle of E. core was studied at Andhra University campus using the leaves of Nerium indicum as the larval host both in laboratory and in the natural conditions. The behavior and morphological characters of eggs, caterpillars, pupae and adult emergence were observed in the laboratory at 28o-30oc. The life cycle was completed in 20-23 days, with egg hatching 3 larvae 10-12, and pupae 7-8 days. The values of consumption index (CI), growth rate (GR), and approximate digestibility (AD) across the instars decreased as the larvae aged. The average values of the CI and GR are 8.35, 0.42 respectively, and that of AD is 73.71 But the values of both efficiency of conversion of digested food (ECD) and efficiency of conversion of ingested food (ECI) either increased or decreased from instar to instar.

Keywords: Life history, Nectar, Oviposition, Instars and Food utilization indices.