BIOLOGICAL AND FEEDING ACTIVETIES OF THE PINK CORN BORER, SESAMIA CRETICALED.TREATED BY PLANT EXTRACTS

Article information Article history: Received:1/3/2023 Accepted:7/5/2023 Available:30/6/2023


INTRODUCTION
Maize (Zea mays L.) is a plant belonging to the family of grass (Gramineae). The global demand is constantly increasing for food, feed, and fuel. It have been cultivated in one hundred and twenty-five countries. Produced nearly 197 million hectares (ha =10000 m2) of maize. The most economical cereal crop in Egypt is maize. Egypt planted the equivalent of 2.3 million feddan of maize and produced 7.7 million tons.
Unfortunately, corn plants are attacked by pests. Infestation of corn considerable damage and significant yield loss in maize crops (El-Sherif, 1965, Kumar, et al. 2018. Under field conditions, S. cretica begins to infesting maize seedlings within 1-2 weeks of germination and continues invading them until they are about 6 weeks old. Occasionally, however, S. cretica infestations may occur on older plants where the adult larvae dig relatively tunnels full of larval feces into the stems into the stems Similar tunnels may also be seen in basal secondary roots, spikes and cobs. Infested young seedlings often die and show the characteristic symptomsof dead heart, while older plants suffer severe yield losses (El-Naggar, 1997;Ismail, et al. 2012and El-Shazly, et al. 2013Suby et al., 2020, Zhang, et al. 2022. Since the 1990s, the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation has emphasized the importance of spreading the philosophy of integrated pest management (IPM) among farmers, and couraging them to use all appropriate methods, techniques, and approaches to keep pest populations below those that cause economic losses., (El-Husseini et al., 2018) .
This pest is partially controlled with conventional chemical pesticides, but because of its high resistance to various agents new possible alternatives for using safer control methods have been explored. Plant extracts and/or their extracted active ingredients have been ingredients have been found to be effective against a number of insect species as potential acute or chronic insecticides, insect growth regulators, or antifeedants, (Shapiro et al. 1995, Vanichpakorn et al. 2010, Ladhari et al. 2013, Ahmed, et al. 2020, Yulia, 2022. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of some plant extracts on certain biological and feeding activities of the rose (Sesamia cretica).

Plant material
Seventeen plants known to be medicinal were collected from natural habitats in various parts of Egypt. The identity of each of the plant species has been verified and confirmed.

Preparation of extracts
Samples were air-dried; the plants were separated and successive extracts were performed on each of the finely powdered (each 500g) with solvents with increasing polarity in the following order, petroleum ether and ethanol. The solvent from each extract was evaporated to dryness in a rotary evaporator under reduced pressure. The residue in each case was dried to constant weight and kept for biological tests. Aqueous emulsions of plant extracts were prepared by dissolving 2.5 g of each crude extract in 100 ml of distilled water (2.5% concentration) using Tween80 as an emulsifier.

Biological test
The larvae were fed on treated maize leaves in a petri dish, each dish containing 10 larvae, and replicated four times. The leaves were dipped for 10 s in various extracts which were emulsified by adding tween -80 (0.01 %) then water containing the same amount of tween only. The larvae were examined for mortality within two days. All mortality data were corrected for natural mortality using, (Abbott formula 1925).

Antifeedant activity
The antifeedant activity of the S. cretica on maize leaves treated by four plant extracts, Aerva javanica, Cassia senna, Halocnemum strobilaceum, and Zizyphus spinachristi was conducted. The antifeeding bioassay was done by collecting one hundred newly ecdysed fourth-instar larvae from laboratory culture. Twenty leaf discs (5 cm diameter) of maize were punched out of leaves and used for feeding larvae (leaf disc/larva). The dipping method was used for 10 seconds under the same laboratory conditions. Then, after drying it under room conditions, it was placed in a Petri dish with a diameter of 15 cm and a depth of 2 cm, and a filter paper moistened with water was used. One treatment was performed at the start of the experiment. Leaf discs were replaced daily with untreated ones. After 4 hours of starvation, 20 pink corn borer 4th instar were placed in each treatment and fed 2, 4, 6, 12, 24, 48, 72, and 96 hours. After removing the larvae from each dish, the area consumed by the treated and untreated discs was measured using graph paper (1 mm scale). The feeding area of the test eaten compared to the untreated (test/control) was calculated as a ratio. The antifeedant activity is reported for each feeding ratio as follows: +4(0.00-0.10 feeding ratio), +3(0.10-0.30), +2(0.30-0.50) and +1< 0.50) Ismail, et al. 2001.
The data collected were subjected to statical analysis of variance (ANOVA) using the Instant V2.03 computer program test and differences were considered statically significant by the least significant difference (LSD) procedure (Snedecor and Cochran 1980) at probability = 1%. Table (1) illustrate the mortality percentage within 48 hours of Sesamia cretica after feeding 4 th instar larvae on maize leaves treated with various plant extracts with alcohol or petroleum-ether, show varying degrees of mortality percentages. On the other hand, extracts of Lycopersicum esculentum, Lotus glenoid, Aerva javanica, Capsium annum and Cassia senna were mildly effective and caused 7.5, 10.0, 12.5 and 12.5 % mortality, respectively, Table (2). The efficacy might be due to the presence of different chemical groups in these plant extracts that are toxic to the larvae of Sesamia cretica.

Results in
Many authors reported that the presence of specific chemicals enhances the activity of many naturally occurring compounds, (Dimetry and Marei 1992, El-Gengaihi et al 1997, Saboon, et al. 2019, Bakshi and Ghosh, 2022, Singh, et al. 2022. Antifeedant activity, and toxic effects as insecticidal role proved in many different plant extracts (Ismail et al. 2015, 2016, Miedaner and Juroszek 2021. The insecticidal properties of plant-derived that are active against specific target insect pests, biodegradable non-toxic, and potentially suitable for use in integrated management programmes have been demonstrated in recent studies. (Markouk et. al. 2000, Ateyyat et al. 2009, Weisheng, et al. 2019, Stéphane, et al. 2021. In this experiment larvae of, the larvae of pink corn borer were fed on leaf discs of corn treated with the plant extracts, compared with untreated ones as a control. The mean area (mm2) of treated discs that consumed by the fourth larval stage of S. creticaa consumed after treatment with Aerva javanica and Zizyphus spinachristi ranged from 1.3±0.3 to 2.4±0.5 mm2 Table (3) and it was 2.7±0.8 mm2 when larvae were fed on Halocnemum strobilaceum compared with 9.0±1.3 mm2 when they were fed on untreated control for 2 hours. After treatment with A. javanica and Z. spinachristi, respectively. Its ranged from 2.1±0.6 to 2.4±0.7 mm2 after the treatment with A. javanica and Z. spinachristi, respectively compared with 14.7±2.6 mm2 when larvae were fed the untreated control for 12 hours. After 48 hours, larvae stopped feeding on different treatments with extracts compared with 15.7±2.3 mm2 when fed with the untreated control.  From the results show in Table (4) it is clear that the feeding ratio of A. javanica had a greater effect than other treatments, it ranged from 0.1-0.3 after 2 hours for the A. javanica and Z. spinachristi treatments while it was 1.0 for the untreated control.  The antifeedant activity of A. javanica, Z. spinachristi and H. strobilaceum was +4 after 24 h while it was +1 in the untreated control, (Table 5). *The extent of antifeedant activity was measured as follows: With a feeding ratio between, 0.0 -0.1 were the most active and are denoted with antifeedant activity of +4, while + 3 for a feeding ratio of 0.1 -0.3 then +2 for 0.3 -0.5 and +1 for < 0.5. Ismail et al. 2001 found that crude extract of Maclura pomifera completely inhibited feeding by Ostrinia nubilalis (Hbn.) at concentrations of 2.5% and 1.25%, while pomiferin completely inhibited feeding at 1 percent. According to  the toxicity of the extract formulations gradually increased depending on the feeding duration and concentration. Also, it was known to possess insect antifeedant/growth-regulating activity against a variety of agricultural pests. Ismail et al. (2012) found that pink corn borer stopped feeding at the time when it was fed on untreated Bt. corn or/and non-Bt. corn treated with Neem Azal-T/S 0.5%. Also, Chinnamani and Jeyasankar (2018) also investigated plant extracts for their antifeedant activity against Spodoptera litura and Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). Pseudocalymma alliaceum (81.55 and 79.44 %), Solanum pseudocapsicum (76.32 and 74.66 %), and Barleria buxifolia (73.23 and 70.66 %) showed considerable antifeedant activity extracts against Spodoptera litura and Helicoverpa armigera, respectively in ethyl acetate extracts. Abd El-Aziz, et al. (2019) found that methylene chloride of Zilla spinosa was the superior extract as a deterrent. Dolma and Reddy, (2022) and Sadeghnezhad, et al. (2022) stated that antifeedant activities of extracts, fractions, seed oil and isolated compounds against some insect pests with the effect on detoxifying enzymes.
It is hoped that the findings of this study will aid in the development of an effective integrated pest programme for the Sesamia cretica management in maize fields. Biocontrol should be emphasised over chemical control as a general feature of such a programme.

Availability of data and materials
All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this article.
Authors' contributions IAI, RSA, and MAA designed experiments. IAI, RSA and MAA set up and conducted the biological experiments, and after that, they analyzed the data and wrote the article. All authors revised the article and read and approved the final manuscript.
Ethics approval and consent to participate Not applicable (this study does not involve human participants, human data, or human tissue).

Consent for publication
Not applicable

Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

CONCLUSIONS
The tested plant extracts were evaluated against S. cretica as toxic effect and antifeeding activity. Can use extracts in integrated pest programme for the S. cretica management in maize. Biocontrol management should be emphasised over chemical control as a general feature of such a programme.