Life-table study of mango leaf cutting weevil, Deporaus marginatus Pascoe (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) feeding on four mango cultivars

Mango leaf cutting weevil, Deporaus marginatus Pascoe (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is a devastating pest of freshly emerged mango foliage. The immature development, survivorship and adult reproduction of the weevil were investigated on four popular mango cultivars (Langra, Amrapali, Fazli and Ashwina) under the laboratory conditions and life-table parameters were estimated. The immature developmental periods ranged from 17.3 to 19.8 days with female ratio of 5.5-6.2. Ault longevity ranged 43.6 days for female and 66.2 days for males. Effects of the host plant varieties were not significant on the immature development or sex ratio, but significantly influenced the adult performances; longevity, reproduction and also life table parameters. Among the mango varieties tested, Ashwina variety could be the most preferable with higher population growth rate while the Langra and Fazli were the lesser suitable with longer doubling time or lower reproduction. Further study could pursue the nutritional and antibiotic mechanisms which could be responsible for the different performance of the herbivore insect on the mango plants. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Korean Society of Applied Entomology, Taiwan Entomological Society and Malaysian Plant Protection Society.