Research on the flight development of some Noctuidae lepidoptera species in the center of Moldova conditions

Abstract

The Noctuidae family, comprises a group of butterfly also named „owl” which larvae are polyphagous pest that attacks the majority of the crops. The greatest damage occurred at cereals, maize, sunflower, sugar beet, grain legumes and technical plants. In the last half century, Scotia and Mamestra species, were permanent in the entomologists attention, their monitoring was performed by classical methods and by using synthetic sex pheromones. At A.R.D.S. Secuieni were carried aut research which resulted in the collection and recording of noctuide adult species, with a light trap. The observations and measurements made during the years 1993 – 2012, have identified seven species of Lepidoptera, popularly called „owl” as follow: Agrotis segetum Den. et Schiff., Agrotis exclamationis L., Amathes C – nigrum L., Autographa gamma L., Mamestra oleracea L., Mamestra persicariae L., Mamestra W latinum Huf.. Based on the data obtained from the investigations it was established: the abundance of species for the study area; the start, duration and end of the flight for each species; the flight intensity and time of the peak flight. After the number of adults collected it was found that in the study area the highest abundance was recorded by Amathes C – nigrum L. species, followed by Agrotis segetum Den. et Schiff. species, and the lowest values of abundance were obtained by Mamestra oleracea L. and Mamestra W latinum Huf. species.