Heliothis virescens (F.) is the main pest of the chickpea considered in Cuba, and your action constitutes losses in the yields. The present work had as objective to determine the biology of H. virescens in leaves and sheath chickpea. The studied was carried out in the Laboratory of Entomology, of the Center of Agricultural Researches. For the breeding of the insect was used a food was obtained starting from larva coming from the field. When obtaining the settings and to emerge the leaves, dish of Petri of 100 x 15 mm were used, where the larva were placed individually, 20 for each food, which were renewed daily. The change of instar was evaluated by those that they lapsed the leaves feed with the used diets, time duration since larva to adult, the weight of the pupa and the relationship male-female. It was obtained that the leaves of H. virescens feed with fresh leaves of chickpea lapsed for seven to instar, and those feed with fresh fruits by six to instar, the time of duration of the larval instars was of 27.93 days and of 14.5 days respectively, while in the pre-pustule state and pustule did not have differences among them. The larva development to adult was of 40.23 days in the leaves that fed with fresh leaves, what overcame in 15.29 days the development of those feed with fruits and the relationship male: female was of 1.2:1 and of 1:1 respectively.
