Biological Effects of Caesalpinia crista Seed Extracts on Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and Its Predator, Coccinella septumpunctata (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae)

Caesalpinia crista seed extracts were investigated in the laboratory against Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner). The extracts exhibited powerful antifeedant and growth disruption activity. The toxic symptoms of the poisoned larvae included reduction in weight gain and mortality of larvae and pupae, larval-pupal intermediates and malformed adults. Maximum anti-feedance is caused by methanol extract (AI50=0.0186%), followed by hexane extract (0.0212%), ethyl acetate extract (0.0416%), butanol extract (0.0767%) and aqueous extract (0.2199%). The larval mortality ranged from 10.00 to 70.00% in different extracts. The 50% larval growth inhibition recorded at 3DAT was statistically at par by methanol and hexane extract. The percent 150 values for inhibiting normal adult emergence were 0.0287, 0.0325, 0.0485, 0.0977 and 0.0547% for methanol, hexane, ethyl acetate, aqueous and butanol extract. The biosafety evaluation of these extracts carried out against the predator, Coccinella septumpunctata showed no mortality of the adults till nine days after treatment. Though the observation taken at 10 DAT, showed slight mortality of adults by methanol extract at both 5.0 and 1.0% concentration.