Standardization of Laboratory Mass Production of Amsacta albistriga Nucleopolyhedrovirus

Five experiments were carried out in the laboratory to evaluate the effect of temperature, humidity, host plant, viral dosage and age of the larvae on the yield of the nucleopolyhedrovirus that could be produced in the red hairy caterpillar, Amsacta albistrigu (Walker). It was concluded that inoculating early sixth instar larvae with a virus inoculum of 5 x 10⁸ POBs/ml, fed with castor leaves, and incubated at 30 ± l°C with a relative humidity of 80–90 per cent gave maximum yield of AaNPV. This forms the basis for mass-producing the nucleopolyhedrovirus of the red hairy caterpillar in the laboratory, which could be used as one of the major components of IPM practices for controlling A. albistriga.