Helicoverpa armigera

Matov, Alexej, Zahiri, Reza & Holloway, Jeremy D., 2008, The Heliothinae of Iran (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), Zootaxa 1763, pp. 1-37 : 12

Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner, [1808])

Pl. 1, fig. 6; male genitalia Pl. 4, fig. 25; female genitalia Pl. 8, fig. 41.

Noctua armigera Hübner , [1808], Samml. Eur. Schmett. 4: pl. 79, fig. 370 (TL.: [Europe]).

Synonymy: Noctua obsoleta sensu auct., nec Fabricius, 1793; Heliothis obsoleta Fabricius, 1775 ; Noctua barbara Fabricius, 1794 ; Heliothis pulverosa Walker, 1857 ; Heliothis conferta Walker, 1857 ; Heliothis uniformis Wallengren, 1860 ; Heliothis armigera fusca Cockerell, 1889 ; Heliothis guidellii Constantini, 1922 ; Helicoverpa armigera subsp. commoni Hardwick, 1965; Heliothis rama Bhattacherjee & Gupta, 1972 .

References: Bienert 1870; Lederer 1871 ( Heliothis Armigera ); Christoph 1877 ( Heliothis armiger ); Barou 1967 ( Chloridea obsoleta ); Kalali 1976 ( Chloridea armigera ); Modarres Awal 1994, 1997 ( Heliothis (= Chloridea ) obsoleta ); Modarres Awal 1999 ( Helicoverpa (= Heliothis ) armigera ); Hacker & Kautt 1999; Hacker & Meineke 2001; Hacker 2001; Ebert & Hacker 2002 ( Helicoverpa armigera ).

Bionomics: Multivoltine, continuously brooded throughout the year. Occurs in various habitats from sea level to 3300m. Moths flying from February to December. Larvae have been recorded from a wide range of herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees from 38 botanical families. The crops attacked by the larvae most often in Near and Middle East are cotton and tomato.

Taxonomic notes: Hardwick (1965) recognised three subspecies. The typical race flies throughout most of the range, ssp. conferta Walker in Australia and the Pacific, and ssp. commoni Hardwick on southeast China (Holloway 1989).

Distribution: Cosmopolitan (Palaeotropic-Palaeosubtropical). Europe, Africa (including Madagascar and Réunion), Near East, Caucasus, Transcaucasia, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, India, South-East Asia, Australia, Oceania, New Zealand. – In Iran (Pl. 10, fig. 54) occurs everywhere except the eastern provinces.

Material examined: 648 specimens from provinces West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan, Ardebil, Mazandaran, Guilan, Golestan, Khorasan, Semnan, Tehran, Qom, Markazi, Qazvin, Hamedan, Zanjan, Kordestan, Kermanshah, Ilam, Lorestan, Esfahan, Charmahal va Bakhtiari, Kohkiluyeh va Boyer-Ahmad, Khuzestan, Fars, Yazd, Kerman, Bushehr, Hormozgan and Sistan va Baluchestan, collected between 16.II to 21.XII on elevations from 0 to 3300 m.