Use of a Baculovirus Mixture for the Control of Helicoverpa armigera (Hbn.) and Spodoptera litura F. on Groundnut

The groundnut, Arachis hypogaea L. is known to be attacked by nearly 52 species of insect pests including the gram pod borer, Helicoverpa armigera (Hbn.) and the tobacco cutworm, Spodoptera litura F. (Singh et al., 1990). These two species of insects feed on leaves and cause considerable damage by defoliation. Since insecticide resistance has been reported in both H. armigera and S. litura In India (Mehrotra, 1989), baculoviruses, particularly the nuclear polyhedrosis viruses (NPV) have been tried as microbial insecticides for the control of these pests. The NPV of H. armigera (HaNPV) has been found to control H.armigera on crops like chickpea (Rabindra and Jayaraj, 1988), pigeonpea (Muthiah and Rabindra, 1991), cotton (Dhandapani et 01., 1987) and sunflower (Rabindra et 01.1986). Similarly, successful control of S. litura with its NPV (SINPV) has been reported on tobacco (Ramakrishnan et 01., 1981), banana (Santharam et 01., 1988), cauliflower (Chaudhari and Ramakrishnan, 1980) and cotton (Jayaraj etal., 1981). But so far, the virus control of these pests has not been attempted on groundnut.