Effect of Temperature on Life Table Parameters of Ectropis grisescens Experimental Populations

  Objective  The effect of temperature on life table parameters of Ectropis grisescens were measured.

  Method  In this study, five temperatures (19 ℃, 22 ℃, 25 ℃, 28 ℃ and 31 ℃) treatments were set up to analysis the life table parameters of E.grisescens.

  Result  The results showed that temperature can affect the growth and development of E. grisescens, and the developmental period from egg to adult decreased as temperature increasing, the shortest developmental period (27.6 d) of E. grisescenswas observed at 31 ℃. Different temperature had significant effect on survival rate of E. grisescens, the higher survival rate (64.0%) of E. grisescens was found at 22 ℃ compared with other temperature treatments. Temperature had a significant effect on the life table parameters of E. grisescens population. Significantly, higher net reproductive rate (R₀) of E. grisescens population was found at 25 ℃ compare with other temperature treatments and R₀ was up to 90.88 offsprings per individual. The intrinsic rate of increase (r) and the finite rate of increase (λ) were also the highest at 25 ℃, which was 0.126 d⁻¹ and 1.134 d⁻¹, respectively.

  Conclusion  The results of this study indicated that 25 ℃ was the optimum temperature for the population growth of E. grisescens, which provided a scientific basis for indoor rearing, field population occurrence prediction and integrated control of this insect pest.