Legume Research

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Orientation Behaviour of Legume Pod Borer, Maruca vitrata Fabricius (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) on Different Pulses

S. Sambathkumar1,*, C. Durairaj1, S. Mohankumar2, N. Ganapathy1
1Department of Agricultural Entomology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-641 003, Tamil Nadu, India.
2Department of Plant Biotechnology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-641 003, Tamil Nadu, India.
  • Submitted24-08-2023|

  • Accepted12-07-2024|

  • First Online 24-08-2024|

  • doi 10.18805/LR-5234

Background: The legume pod borer, Maruca vitrata, is recognized as serious insect pest on grain legumes and cause significant yield loss. Much research work has been carried out on management of M. vitrata with synthetic pesticides and biocides, there is paucity of knowledge on alternative non chemical methods to overcome this menace. Chemical signals from reproductive structures of host plants act as a key for lepidopteran phytophagous insects. 

Methods: Effects of volatiles from flowers and pods of different pulses such as pigeonpea, greengram, blackgram, cowpea and lablab on orientation pattern of M. vitrata larvae and adult moths and attractance behaviour of male moths to their females were investigated under laboratory conditions by using multi arm olfactometer and wide spaced basins. 

Result: One day old female moths showed significantly maximum orientation towards flowers of pigeonpea (42.7%) while elder age groups had the orientation ranging from 0.0 to 34.0 per cent on blackgram flowers and control (without host) respectively. The order of host preference of M. vitrata larvae observed as cowpea (32.2%) >lablab (32.0%) >pigeonpea (18.8%) >greengram (9.0%) >blackgram (4.8%) >unsettled (3.0%). These results clearly showed the maximum preference of lablab by M. vitrata than other pulses tested. In an another experiment, one, two and three day old male moths had maximum orientation towards two day old females (31.3 to 40.0%) and this indicated more amount of sex pheromone emitted by female moths on two days after their emergence.

Pulses are important source of protein and contributes major share to total food production in India. The legume pod borer, Maruca vitrata Fabricius, is recognized as serious insect pest on majority of grain legumes (Shanower et al., 1999) cause tremendous yield loss across the country. Larvae mainly hide inside webbings made out of flowers and pods of legumes and voraciously feed by remain inside (Zadda Kavitha and Vijayaraghavan, 2023). Its concealed nature feeding by webbing flowers and pods make it harder for natural enemies (Singh and Singh, 2021) to access feeding sites and more difficult to manage with insecticides (Sambathkumar et al., 2015). In these circumstances, farmers use array of synthetic pesticides to overcome its menace and this pose an adverse effect to environment and human beings throughout India. Nevertheless, these give only limited success and failed to reach satisfactory level of reduction in larval population (Yule and Srinivasan, 2013). Even though much research work has been carried out on management of M. vitrata, there is paucity of knowledge on alternative non chemical methods to overcome this menace. Presently much emphasis is being given to utilization of non-chemical, eco-friendly and sustainable pest management measures.
       
Generally, odors that are emitted by host plants can attract many herbivorous insects and foraging parasitoids (Wäckers, 2005). Normally, host plants release odours specifically attract herbivore insects whereas, the same plants under herbivore damage produce herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) that attract many natural enemies (Aartsma et al., 2017). According to Wang et al., (2011), the mixture of odour from legume flowers play significant role in identification and differentiating the ideal host plants by M. vitrata. Hence, strong knowledge on influence of host plant volatiles on behaviour of this pest will be an ideal alternate to manage this pest. So far, only little attention has been paid to study the effect of plant volatiles on M. vitrata in locating suitable host for feeding and oviposition. Hence, the present study is focused to understand the orientation preference of larvae and adult moths of M. vitrata to different pulses and sexual attractance of their adult moths.
Preliminary studies on interaction of M. vitrata with its host plants
 
Mass culturing
 
Larvae of Maruca collected from different pulses such as pigeonpea, greengram, blackgram, cowpea and lablab raised in crop fields of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore and  mass cultured  at Department of Agricultural Entomology, TNAU, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu during 2012-13. They were inoculated separately on plastic basin (30 cm dia. and 10 cm height) contain a dry filter paper along with fresh flowers and pods of their corresponding hosts as food source. Periodically, fresh flowers and pods were replaced with respect to host from which larvae were collected. Healthy pupae were retained in plastic buckets (22.5 cm dia. and 25 cm height) for adult emergence. In each bucket, ten pairs of healthy and active male and female adult moths were released along with bunch of fresh flowers and pods of corresponding hosts for egg laying with a piece of absorbent cotton swabbed with diluted honey (10%) and drop of vitamin E solution in small sterile glass vials to facilitate healthy mating and oviposition. The mouth of the plastic bucket was fastened with black coloured sterile muslin cloth. This also acted as oviposition substrate and black color helped to identify the eggs. At every time, fresh eggs were stored in separate plastic basins (30 cm dia. and 10 cm height) according to host. The whole mass culturing was done in a culture room with a temperature of 27.9±2.2°C and relative humidity (RH) of 76.6±9.1 per cent.
 
Kairomonal studies with respect to females of M. vitrata
 
Invitro studies were carried out to find out the influence of host plant volatiles on attraction of Maruca females. Totally, ten grams of flowers of pigeonpea, greengram, blackgram, cowpea and lablab were taken in separate glass bottles (20.0 cm height and 6.0 cm dia.) and was firmly closed with a lid comprised of an inlet and outlet glass tubes. The inlet of each bottle (with host) was connected to an aquarium pump (220-240 volt AC) and the outlet end was individually connected to the individual arm of a six arm olfactometer (Plate 1) in that one arm was maintained as control without any host. The air current was passed from aquarium pump at the rate of 4 lit/ min in to olfactometer. After five minutes of saturation of different host odour in the olfactometer, ten numbers of one day old virgin female moths were released from mass cultured population in the olfactometer through a central hole which also served as odour exit hole. Observation was made on number of female moths settled on each arm at 10, 20 and 30 MAR (Minutes After Release) for their host preference. This experiment was replicated thrice. Similarly, other two experiments were conducted with two and three day old female moths of M. vitrata following the same methodology. Since, moths of M. vitrata are nocturnal, this experiment was conduted between 18:00 to 23:00 hrs. The data on number of female moths settled on each arm was recorded and per cent moth orientation was also calculated.
 

Plate 1: Experiment setup to study the kairomonal response of M. vitrata females to different pulses.


 
Effect of kairomonal odour on larvae of M. vitrata
 
In order to find out the host odour perception by M. vitrata larvae, an experiment was conducted in Completely Randomized Design using flowers of pigeonpea, blackgram, greengram, cowpea and lablab. Twenty grams of flowers of each pulse host arranged in circular fashion at the periphery of plastic basin (30 cm dia. and 10 cm height) with a filter paper at the base. Twenty five numbers of fourth instar Maruca larvae were released in the centre of the basin (Plate 2). This experiment was replicated five times. Observations were made on number of larvae settled on each host at 24 Hours After Release (HAR). The per cent orientation towards each host was computed and statistically analysed. In order to study the perception of larvae from wider distance another study was carried out with bigger container made out of thermacol pith (120 × 120 × 30 cm) (Plate 3) and same methodology was followed as described above. Since, Maruca larvae are hidden feeder and active throughout the day, this study was conducted during day time.
 
 

Plate 2: Experiment setup for kairomonal response of M. vitrata larvae to different pulses using Plastic Basin.


 

Plate 3: Experiment setup for kairomonal response of M. vitrata larvae to different pulses using Bigger container.


 
Response of different age groups of males of M. vitrata to females
 
Studies were carried out to find out the response to different age groups of M. vitrata males to different age groups of females between 18:00 to 23:00 hrs. Virgin females of one, two, three and four days old moths were individually confined in separate glass bottles (20.0 cm height and 6.0 cm dia.) and firmly closed with a glass lid comprised of a inlet and outlet glass tubes. One end of glass tube was connected to an aquarium pump (220-240 volt AC) and another end was connected to the individual arms of a six arm olfactometer (Plate 4). Two opposite arms were kept as control. This setup was maintained with three replications. Air flow was made in olfactometer at the rate of 4 lit/min through the bottles containing females of different age groups. After five minutes of saturation of odours from different age groups of females in to the olfactometer, ten numbers of one day old, virgin male moths were released in to the olfactometer through a central hole. Observation was taken on number of male moths settled on each arm at 10, 20 and 30 MAR for their host preference. This experiment replicated thrice. Similarly, other two experiments were conducted with two and three day old male moths following the same methodology. The data on number of female moths settled on each arm was recorded as per cent moth oriented.
 

Plate 4: Experiment setup for the orientation behaviour of different age groups of M. vitrata males to calling behaviour of females.


 
Statistical analyses
 
The data obtained between 1.0 to 100.0 per cent, arcsine transformation was used and for zero values, X + 0.5 was added to all values and analysed. Paired ‘t’ test (Gomez and Gomez (1984) was adopted to find out the significant difference of larval orientation in both plastic and larger container with respect to different hosts studied. Analysis of variance was done and means were separated by Tukey’s HSD (Tukeys, 1953) at 5 per cent significance level. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS 16.0 version. The critical ‘p’ value of 0.05 was set and analyzed for each test.
Kairomonal studies with reference to M. vitrata female moths
 
The experimental results showed a significant variation on orientation behaviour of Maruca female moths towards flowers of different pulses (Table 1). At 10 MAR (Minutes After Release), the maximum orientation of one day old females recorded in lablab (44.0%). Pigeonpea and cowpea stand next to lablab with the per cent orientation of 20.0 and 18.0 respectively when compared to 4.0 per cent towards control arm. At 20 MAR, the highest orientation (44.0%) recorded towards flowers of lablab and found to be significant to other hosts. On 30 MAR, also same trend was recorded and the orientation level ranged from 2.0 to 40.0 per cent on blackgram and lablab respectively. On 10 MAR, the response of two day old Maruca females was more (28.0 %) towards pigeonpea and control arm (without host) followed by 18.0, 16.0 and 10.0 per cent on lablab, cowpea and greengram respectively. In 20 and 30 MAR also, the maximum orientation of female moths recorded towards control arm (26.0%) followed by pigeonpea (24.0%) and greengram (22.0%). There was no female orientation recorded from 10 to 30 MAR on blackgram (Table 1).  At 10 MAR, the highest orientation of three day old Maruca females recorded towards control arm (34.0%). Lablab and pigeonpea recorded orientation of 24.0 and 22.0 per cent and stand next to control arm (Table 1). On blackgram flowers containing arm, there was no orientation of Maruca females observed during the entire observation period.
 

Table 1: Orientation behaviour of different age groups of M. vitrata females to pulses.


       
Among the response showed by different age groups of female moths to flowers of pulses, the significant orientation was recorded only in one day old females. The mean data showed that maximum female moth orientation was towards flowers of lablab (42.7%) followed by 21.3 per cent on flowers of pigeonpea and cowpea as compared to 4.0 per cent in control (without any hosts) (Fig 1). Whereas, the maximum orientation of two (26.7%) and three day old females (34.0 %) was found towards control followed by 25.3 and 22.0 per cent respectively on pigeonpea for same the age groups. It clearly showed that the one day old females are having strong orientation towards its preferable host than other elder age groups. This kind of behaviour might be useful to find its suitable pair for subsequent mating and oviposition for further progeny development. The above phenomenon was in conformation with the laboratory studies by Sambathkumar (2023) who recorded maximum fecundity on lablab followed by pigeonpea when compared to other pulse hosts. Generally, volatile chemical compounds of host plant parts are mainly influence on identification of ideal site for oviposition and development. Bo Feng et al., (2017) recorded β-caryophyllene as strong oviposition attractant to M. vitrata in cowpea. Apart from locating preferable hosts by female moths, host plant volatiles also have tremendous influence on various sexual responses and courtship behaviour of many phtophagous insects.
 

Fig 1: Orientation of different age groups of M. vitrata females towards pulses.


 
Effect of kairomonal odour on larvae of M. vitrata
 
Based on the settling behaviour of Maruca larvae on different pulses using plastic basin (30 cm dia. and 10 cm height), it was clear that the most preferred hosts were cowpea and lablab which attracted about 32.4 and 30.4 per cent of the larvae followed by pigeonpea (23.6%) and they were statistically on par with each other. Greengram (6.8%) and blackgram (3.6%) had minimum orientation and about 2.8 per cent of larvae did not show preference for any hosts (Table 2). The experiment conducted with bigger container revealed a significant attraction in lablab (33.6%) and cowpea (32.0%) than other hosts. Pigeonpea (14.0%), greengram (11.2%) and blackgram (6.0%) were preferred less by the larvae.
 

Table 2: Orientation of M. vitrata larva to different pulses.


       
During many instances, the plants that are under biotic stress, release many Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) and this cause remarkable response in host insects which are receiving these chemicals (Adhab, 2021). Hence, by knowing the insect pest attracting specific plant volatiles, it can be recommended the planting of non-crop hosts that could yield considerable amount of the same volatile and thereby the main crop get protected. The current study showed that the maximum orientation of M. vitrata larvae was towards flowers of cowpea and lablab followed by pigeonpea than blackgram and greengram (Table 2). Similar kind of studies on M. vitrata has not done earlier. Maximum larval orientation towards lablab followed by pigeonpea is in agreement with reports of Sambathkumar et al., (2017) in terms of desirable nutritional indices values on growth and development and to support for maximum generation production of M. vitrata. Results on paired‘t’ test of the present study revealed that the significant difference only existing in orientation behaviour of larvae towards greengram and pigeonpea. The reason for this significant difference on two hosts might be due to unavailability of enough space for the larvae to locate its highly preferred host (with mixture of odour) in plastic basin. However, in the bigger container, chance for mixing host odour is very less and hence, larvae could able to orient towards its most preferable host.  
       
In the present study, less orientation of M. vitrata larvae and adults recorded towards blackgram and greengram. Even though these two hosts are seem to be the best choice for the establishment of M. vitrata, the poor larval preference might be due to availability these two hosts in the pool of other pulses. Therefore, the VOCs from highly preferred host plants and the combination of odour from all host plants play a crucial role in larval preference of M. vitrata for feeding when many legume hosts are available. In case of phytophagous lepidoperans, selection of suitable host plant for its larval feeding is bestowed with the choice of mother moths (Singer, 1981) and the emerged larvae have ability to discriminate hosts based on quality and emanating volatiles from the host plant. Further based on visual and a wide array of semiochemical cues from host plants further, suitability will be decided by olfactory, gustatory and tactile cues (Harris et al., 1999). Likewise, larvae would search thoroughly and settle on suitable food among complex matrix of food source.
 
Response of different age groups of males of M. vitrata to female moths
 
The results on response of one day old male moths of M. vitrata to different age groups of females showed that, at 10 MAR, the orientation of male moths was maximum (34.0%) towards two days old females followed by 28.0 per cent towards one day old females when compared to 4.0 per cent towards four day old females. At 20 MAR, there was no significant variation in orientation of Maruca males towards different age group of females and it ranged from 10.0 to 36.0 per cent on two and three day old females respectively. Same trend was registered at 30 MAR (Table 3). The response of two day old male moths of M. vitrata showed significant variation with respect to its orientation towards females. At 10 MAR, maximum orientation was observed towards two day old females (40.0%) followed by one (24.0 %) and three day old females (16.0%). On control arm (without host), 16.0 per cent of males were settled. At 20 and 30 MAR, more number of male moths was oriented towards females of two day old (40.0%) and during the both times of observation, the least orientation (8.0%) of male moths recorded towards four day old female moths of M. vitrata. The response of three day old male moths was almost similar from 10 to 30 MAR (Table 3). On 10 MAR, the per cent orientation ranged from 10.0 to 34.0 towards control arm and two day old females respectively. At 20 and 30 MAR also, the orientation was more towards two day old females followed by 18.0 per cent towards both one day old females and control arm (without host).
 

Table 3: Response of different age groups of male moths of M. vitrata to calling behaviour of females.


       
A pheromone is a substance secreted externally by an organism causing a specific reaction in a receiving organism of the same species led to interaction between organisms (Nordlund, 1981). In recent past, there has been more use of pheromone mediated monitoring of insect pest population. Mean orientation response of different age groups of male moths towards females showed that maximum orientation of one day old males (35.3 %) towards two day old female moths followed by 28.0 and 13.0 per cent orientation towards one and three days old females respectively. Similarly, highest mean orientation response of two (40.0%) and three (31.3%) day old males also recorded towards two day old females (Fig 2). The present result might be due to the influence of releasing sex pheromones in two day old females to attract more number of male moths through series of differential electrophysiological stimulatory response in antenna of males. Age of insects is very important factor that significantly affect their mating success, mate preference and fitness outcome (Lai et al., 2020). As the age of female moth increases there could be reduction in the rate and titre of sex pheromone release. The present results clearly revealed that the maximum male moth orientation is towards 2 days old female moths which coincided with more release of pheromone. Whereas on older (3 and 4 days age) female moths, the lesser male moth attraction has showed the decreased rate of pheromone emission. Similarly the male moths up to 2 days old attracted more towards young female moths (up to 2 days aged). This indicated that the maximum orientation between younger male and female moths and this response could be gradually reduced with increase in the age of both sexes. Earlier reports also indicating that, the mating delay between unsuitable pairs reduce the reproductive output of both sexes but female moths were more negatively affected than male moths (Xia-Lin Zheng et al., 2020). Hence, the present study suggest that the ideal mating attempts can be done up to two days old male and female moths during pheromone related experiments.
 

Fig 2: Response of different age groups M. vitrata male moths to females.


       
The current findings are in conformity to the findings of Downham (2003), who extracted maximum amount of attracting pheromones from two day old female moths of M. vitrata. In contrast, the chance of pheromone release is very less in one day old female would cause less attraction. Similar kind of phenomena was observed in Spodoptera litura Fabricius and H. armigera (Hong-Lei-Wang et al., 2005). Results of present study may be further extrapolated with respect to frequency of adult moth mating rhythms. Since, M. vitrata female moths of two days after emergence (DAE) released maximum amount of pheromones, the peak mating frequency might be expected during this time. This is closely in line with earlier findings on occurrence of highest mating frequency of Mauca adults on 3 DAE (Lu Peng-Fei, 2007). Many earlier EAG studies are also confirming these findings. Based on the present findings, it can be further studied the maximum attraction of different age groups of male moths of M. vitrata to its females in order to find the ideal time and age for female moths to extract its natural attractants including the sex pheromones.
       
This phenomena also useful in designing specific kairomones based management techniques for M. vitrata in future. Further studies are required to correctly identify chemistry of olfactory stimuli that are influencing the orientation behaviour of both larvae and adult moths in different hosts tested. If highly attractive chemical cues identified, this may be produced in large scale and utilized as alternate pest management tool for monitoring, mass trapping and mating disruption of Maruca populations. Additionally, by applying these kairomones on non-host plants in nearby fields, both larvae and adult moths of M. vitrata made to attract for feeding and oviposition, respectively on these plants to achieve incomplete growth and development of insects. Simultaneously, application of pesticides could be concentrated only on these non-host plants to reduce this globally distributed insect threat.
The present study clearly revealed that among different age groups of female moths of M. vitrata, one day old moths had maximum orientation towards flowers of pigeonpea (42.7 %) followed by 21.3 per cent towards lablab and cowpea. Similarly, the highest larval orientation was recorded towards flowers of cowpea and lablab. With respect to orientation behaviour of adult moths, one, two and three day old male moths had maximum orientation towards two day old females (31.3 to 40.0 %). However, further studies are required on identification of attractive chemical cues for both larvae and adult moths, blending of most attractive host plant volatiles with pheromone chemicals along with standardization of optimum blend ratio in order to increase the efficiency of trap catches under field conditions.
The first author is sincerely acknowledging Department of Science and Technology, India for giving INSPIRE (Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research) Fellowship, funding source for this research.
All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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