RESUMO
Five host plants [castor, Ricinus communis (Carolus Linnaeus); cotton, Gossypium hirsutm (Carolus Linnaeus); tomato, Lycopersicum esculentum (Philip Miller); mint, Mentha arvensis (Carolus Linnaeus) and cabbage, Brassica oleracea (Carolus Linnaeus)] belonging to different families were used to study the performance of the Asian armyworm, Spodoptera litura larvae. Highest consumption of food and dry weight gain was observed in larvae fed on castor. Mint did not support optimum larval growth because of low digestibility and low efficiency of conversion of digested food to body matter. Dry weight gain ranged from 26.64 mg on mint to 86.80 mg in castor. These differences tend to be related to nitrogen and total phenolics content of the leaf tissues; however, the most clear-cut correlation is an inverse one between the host plant preference and the ratio of total phenolics to nitrogen in the leaf tissues. Mid-gut esterase activity in larvae showed an increasing trend with the increase in total phenolics: nitrogen ratio in the test plants and the order of mid-gut esterase activity in larvae was mint > cabbage > cotton > tomato > castor.