Occurrenece of Nomuraea rileyi on Spodoptera litura and Helicoverpa armigera in Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh

Epizootic of Nomuraea rileyi were observed during January-March when the maximum, minimum temperatures and morining, evening RH's ranged betwen 28.1–35.9°C, 16.2–21.8°C and 86–95%, 43–83%, respectively. Higher % mycosed larvae of both the species were recorded (maximum of 60.4 jof Spodoptera litura and 33.3 of Helicoverpa amiigera) in black gram (Phaseolus mungo) than in red gram (Cajanus cajan) which was infested with only Helicoverpa armigera. Mycosed larvae were low (maximum of 5.3 of Spodoptera litura and 5.4 of Helicoverpa armigera) in chillies (Capsicum annum) though infected larvae were not obselved in main crop of tomato, nearly 80% infection of N. rileyi was noticed on S. litura in nursery. Incidence of N. rileyi showed positive asociation with morning RH H. armigera recorded relatively higher % infection than S. litura in groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) whereas in black gram, S. litura was highly infected than H. armigera.