OVIPOSITION BEHAVIOR OF THE LIMA-BEAN POD BORER, ETIELLA-ZINCKENELLA TREITSCHKE (LEPIDOPTERA, PYRALIDAE) ON THE SOYBEAN

Oviposition behavior of E. zinckenella on a soybean plant was observed in both field and laboratory cages. Gravid females tended to oviposit several separate eggs on a plant at each arrival. They exhibited behavioral sequences composed of several kinds of events after alighting on the host plant. The most common sequence was as follows: A female that alighted on a host plant bent her abdomen downward immediately after touching its surface with her antennae, and began to walk forward while dragging her ovipositor tip and tapping the surface alternately with her antennae. Detecting the oviposition site, she stopped walking, raising the anterior portion of her body, and deposited an egg. After raising her body, however, she occasionally searched the surface intensively with the ovipositor tip alone. The insect often repeated this sequence several times, laying an egg each time. Additionally, ordinary walking and pausing were sometimes included in the sequence. She stayed on the host ovipositing in this way for about 4 min on an average and then flew away. In general, such an oviposition bout was repeated in the early part of the dark period accompanied by flying and resting respectively, before and after it. Most females reamined quiescent in the middle or latter part of the dark period.