Effect of temperature on developmental rate of Sesamia cretica (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) immature stages.

Effect of temperature on development of pink stem borer, Sesamia cretica Lederer, was studied at eight constant temperatures (15, 18, 20.5, 24, 27, 30, 34, and 38°C), a photoperiod of 16:8 (L:D) h, and 50-60% rela\tive humidity. The larvae of pink stem borer were reared on cutting stems of maize. The results showed that temperature had statistically significant effect on developmental times of the all developmental stages. The most commonly used six nonlinear models applied for modeling developmental rate of immature stages as a function of temperature. Evaluation of the models fit to data took place based on the coefficient of determination, residual sum of squires, adjusted coefficient of determination, and Akaike information criterion. Besides statistical criteria, biological significance was used to determine the best model. All the examined models statistically fit the data well. In addition, Briere-2 was selected as the best model considering biological significance of the estimated values for the biologically interpretable parameters of models. Based on the results, the values of the lower temperature threshold were 10.82, 11.81, 9.35, and 10.67°C, the optimal temperature were 35.50, 31.80, 33.35, and 32.22°C, and the upper temperature threshold were 38.93, 39.19, 37.41, and 36.55°C, for incubation period, larva, pupa, and overall immature stages of pink stem borer, respectively.