To begin, keep Helicoverpa armigera neonates in the plastic breeding chamber covered with a muslin cloth in the insect culture room. Then gently transfer newly emerged neonates using a fine paintbrush on a freshly prepared, chickpea based artificial diet for growth. For the feeding assay, collect 21 second instar larvae for the control and treatment set.
Cut previously prepared control and quercetin containing diet into small pieces, and record the weight of the diet and the insect's body. Carefully transfer the insect into the culture vial, add the respective diet into the vial, and let the insect feed. From the second day till the 10th day, record the weight of the insect body followed by a given diet, uneaten diet, and frass.
Count the live and dead larvae and pupae on day 10. To record and analyze the data, compare the insect body weight between the control and treatment groups using a student t test Plot a Kaplan-Meier curve for survival percentage using the graphing software using live dead larvae and pupae count. Then calculate the percent pupation and compare larval development and nutritional indices.
In the present study, the insect larvae fed with quercetin containing diet showed a significant decrease compared to the control group, thereby resulting in reduced body size. Also, a notable reduction was observed in the feeding rate of quercetin fed larvae compared to the control. Furthermore, there was a significant decrease in percent pupation in quercetin fed larvae suggesting developmental retardation upon treatment.
For insects fed on the quercetin containing diet, the efficiency of conversion of ingested food to body matter was reduced by approximately 9%compared to the control. The efficiency of conversion of digested food was reduced by approximately 49%compared to the control. The approximate digestibility in quercetin fed insects was increased by 5%compared to the control.
