Pink Bollworm: Effects of Temperature, Photoperiod and Light Intensity, Moth Age, and Mating Frequency on Oviposition and Egg Viability12

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Abstract
At 15.6° and 21.1°C (14-h photophase), mating, oviposition, and egg viability of adult Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders), from laboratory-reared larvae and from field-collected larvae that overwintered in cotton bolls, were reduced. Also, fewer spermatophores per female were transferred. Mating was not reduced by a temperature of 32.2°C. Rate of oviposition per day was highest at 26.7° and 32.2°C. Virgin females produced an avg 16±3 eggs. Females mated once produced as many viable eggs as multiple-mated females. Male and female moths on the night of emergence and night after emergence mated less than older moths, and this resulted in lower oviposition rates of the females. Conditions most conducive to mating appeared to be a temperature of 26.7 and a 14-h photophase. Mating and oviposition were inhibited by continuous light of ca. 100 ft-c and oviposition was inhibited by 50 ft-c. Also, females exposed to such illumination were ca. 1–2 days longer in depositing their 1st eggs.