Biology of castor spiny caterpillar, Ariadne merione

Studies on biology of Ariadne meriane on castor was undertaken at 25 ± 1°c temperature and 65 ± 5% relative humidity. There were five larval instars. The total larval duration was 26.5 ± 0.22 days while average longevity of adult was 9.33 ± 0.20 day. The duration of total life span (egg to death of adult) was 47.93 ± 0.22 days. The pre-oviposition, oviposition and post-oviposition period was 2.5 ± 0.25,3.93 ± 0.05 and 1.46 ± 0.25 days, respectively