The beet armyworm Spodoptera exigua (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is difficult to control using chemical insecticides because of the development of insecticide resistance. Several pest control agents are used to control the beet armyworm. Entomopathogenic fungi are one of the candidates for eco-friendly pest control instead of chemical control agents. In this study, among various entomopathogenic fu...

A continuous cell line, designated KU-SENL-1 (SENL1), has been established from minced neonate larvae of Spodoptera exigua (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) treated with collagenase. The primary culture was maintained in TC100 medium supplemented with 10% Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS), 3% Helicoverpa armigera hemolymph and incubated at 27°C. This continuous cell line was cultured in TC100 medium supplemented...

Sublethal infections by Spodoptera exigua multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (SeMNPV) are common in field populations of the beet armyworm (S. exigua, Hübner) in the Almerian horticultural region of Spain. Inoculation of second, third, and fourth instars with occlusion bodies (OBs) of an isolate (VT-SeAl1) associated with vertically transmitted infections resulted in 15 to 100% of sublethal infectio...

The effects of four sugar beet cultivars (Anaconda, Rozier, Evelina and Flores) on the life table parameters of beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua (Lep.: Noctuidae) were evaluated at 26 ± 1 °C, 60 ± 5% relative humidity and a photoperiod of 16: 8 h (L: D). The highest gross and net fecundity rates were obtained on Anaconda (2573.31 ± 27.78 and 1576.31 ± 16.65 eggs/female, respectively). The net r...

Instar determination of field-collected insect larvae has generally been based on the analysis of head capsule width frequency distributions or bivariate plotting, but few studies have tested the validity of such methods. We used head capsules from exuviae of known instars of the beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), to determine the larval instars with the frequen...

The beet armyworm (Spodoptera exigua Hübner) is an important pest of many agricultural crops all over the world. Most of the sugar beet growing regions in Iran are infested. In this study, the acute lethal effects of Pyriproxyfen, Spinosad, and Indoxacarb as well as sublethal effects of Pyriproxyfen on the 1 instar S. exigua were assessed by leaf dip bioassay method. Mortality was recorded 48 h...

The insecticidal characteristics of two Spodoptera exigua multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (SeMNPV) strains produced on two different S. exigua colonies were measured using the same two host colonies. These strains constitute the active ingredients of the biological insecticides Vir-ex and Spexit and were produced on insect colonies from Spain and Switzerland. Demographic characteristics of insect...

Volicitin (17-hydroxylinolenoyl-l-Gln) present in the regurgitant of Spodoptera exigua (beet armyworm caterpillars) activates the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) when in contact with damaged Zea mays cv Delprim (maize) leaves. VOC emissions in turn serve as a signaling defense for the plant by attracting female parasitic wasps that prey on herbivore larvae. A tritiated form of vol...

Ascoviruses are insect-specific large DNA viruses that mainly infect noctuid larvae, and are transmitted by parasitoids in the fields. Heliothis virescens ascovirus 3h (HvAV-3h) has been recently isolated from Spodoptera exigua, without parasitoid vector identified previously. Here we report that Microplitis similis, a solitary endoparasitoid wasp, could transmit HvAV-3h between S. exigua larva...