CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Among the chemicals with low environmental impact, the botanical insecticides are a good alternative for the control of insect pests. The extract from of chilca (Fluorensia oolepis), endemic in the Cordoba province, has shown insecticide activity. The aim of this work was to analyzede the effect of this extract on nutritional parameters of the caterpillar bollworm of Helicoverpa gelotopoeon. These polyphagous larvae are considered important pests for agriculture. It have has been reported recently generating damaged significant on chickpea. Forced feeding tests were performed. Larvae III were placed into Petri dishes, for 10 days, and fed with chickpea leaves treated with different doses of the extract (1% to 5%), and with water/acetone (control). Eight repetitions were performed using three larvae per treatment. The data were analyzed using ANOVA or Kruskal Wallis. Consumption, growth and mortality were determined. The variables fresh and dry weight of each larva, their feces and leaves supplied every 48 hours were considered. Also, the consumption index, approximate digestibility, efficiency in conversion of ingested and digested food, the relative growth rate and mortality were calculated. The extract affected the larval weight, causing a significant decrease in the growth of the larvae with increasing dose and it influenced negatively on the efficiency of conversion of ingested food and deferred, although digestibility was not affected. Furthermore, the mortality increaseds significantly from the 4th day of experimentation. With such promising results we plan field trails to assess the response of the extract under natural conditions.