Helicoverpa armigera is distributed all over in India and is seen through the year on seasonal crops, orchards and weeds. It has caused serious damage in citrus orchards in Abohar (Punjab) in 1994-96, damaging 8.8 to 55.4 percent fruits (Arora et al., 1996). It is recorded as prominent pest in India of Chicory in Himachal Pradesh (Singh et al., 2002); potato in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh (Singh and Chaudhuri, 1974); mustard in Satpura plateau of Madhya Pradesh (Sharma, 1993); black cumin (Kala zira) in Himachal Pradesh (Bhardwaj and Panwar, 1990; Sharma et al., 1997; Sharma, 1998) and Castor in Andhra Pradesh (Satyanarayana et al., 2000). It has been observed feeding on a dozen annual flowers in India at Punjab (Singh and Arora, 1989) and Himachal Pradesh (Singh, 1983) and on rose snapdragon, geranium, gladiolus, marigold, and several others in Karnataka. In India it has been recorded on about three dozen wild plants and weeds (Saini and Mahla, 1991; Rao et al., 1991). It has been also recorded from Asam, Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Harayana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Orisa, Rajsthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal on cotton, tomato, pigeonpea, chickpea and other crop plants. This pest damages seasonal crop in summer, monsoon and winter. In Motipur (Bihar), H. armigera infestation on maize was 21% while adjacent pigeonpea fields remained totally free from this pest (Anonymous, 1974). Kaushik et al., (1969) recorded 14-56% damage to cotton in Madhya Pradesh. 14% damage to same crop was recorded in Anand (Gujarat) Manjunath (1974). Bhatnagar et al., (1981, 1982) in Andhra Pradesh recorded 25-65% & 6% damage to pigeonpea & chickpea crops, respectively. 15-20% yield loss of sorghum was reported in Bangalore (Karnataka) (Anonymous, 1974). The tomato fruits were heavily damaged (40-50%) by this pest in Tamil Nadu (Srinivasan, 1959) and 80% in Karnataka, (Anonymous, 1974). In Andhra Pradesh, Bhatnagar & Davies (1978 b) recorded 32% H. armigera adults in safflower monocrop & 57% intercrops by light traps.
Pigeon pea was most preferred among the key host plants recorded for oviposition, & feeding followed by field bean, chickpea, tomato, cotton, mungabean & sorghum. Same host plants in the descending order of preference were observed for oviposition (Vijayakumar, 1980). Among the acidic exudates, presence of oxalic acid (0.9 – 0.09%) attracted maximum number of eggs. A higher population of H.armigera in sunflower plots adjacent to pigonpea plots was observed indicated the effect of neighbouring host plants on the population of H.arnigera. Pigeonpea was more preferred in comparison to cotton (Singh et al., 2002).
H.peltigera: It is pest of safflower. It mainly feeds on weeds like Acanthospermum hispidium, Xanthium occidentale, Salvia glutinosa etc. It is distributed in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, and Karnataka & Punjab.
H. assulata: It occurs in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Orissa, Tamil Nadu & Uttar Pradesh. This pest is very common on tobacco. In India both H.peltigera & H. assulata are mostly restricted to weeds.
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