IOSR Journal of Agriculture and Veterinary Science (IOSR-JAVS) e-ISSN: 2319-2380, p-ISSN: 2319-2372.Volume 7, Issue 1 Ver. I (Jan. 2014), PP 40-43 www.iosrjournals.org www.iosrjournals.org 40 | Page Role of Life Table in Insect Pest Management--A Review A. M. Kakde 1 , K.G. Patel 2 and Shailesh Tayade 3 1,3 ( Ph.D Scholars, Deptt. of Entomology, N.M. College of Agriculture, N.A.U., Navsari-396 450, Gujarat, India ) 2 (Principal, college of Agriculture, N.A.U., Bharuch-392 001, Gujarat, India) Abstract: Life table study is very useful to analyse the mortality of insect population, to determine key factors responsible for the highest mortality within population. It is determined by two types viz., Age Specific (or Horizontal) and Stage Specific (or Vertical) Life Table. Moreover, various mathematical formulas also indicated for the appropriate evaluation of life fecundity tables, stable age distribution and life expectancy. Life expectancy of beneficial insects can be calculated and used for biological control program by predicting natural things in particular instar within which the maximum mortality of the pests is obtained and plan for managing pests in time. Keywords: Life table, Insect pests, Life fecundity, Life expectancy I. Introduction A life table is a kind of book-keeping system that ecologists often used to keep track of stage specific mortality in the population they study. A life describes for successive age intervals, the number of deaths, the survivors, the rate of mortality and the expectation of further life. Life table provides an important tool in understanding the changes in population of insect pests during different developmental stages throughout their life cycle. It is an especially useful approach in entomology, where developmental stages are discrete and mortality rates may vary widely from one life stage to another. It is very useful to analyze the mortality of insect population to determine key factors responsible for the highest mortality within population. The construction of several life tables may be possible to prepare a predictive model which can be tested against natural population fluctuations. Life table is an important analytical technique in studying distribution, determination of age and mortality of an organism and individuals can be calculated. II. Nature And Origin Leopold was the first researcher to identify the value of the life table in the study of natural population and he called it as “Life equation” (Harcourt, 1969). Morris and Miller (1954) presented the first detailed example of a life table for natural population of spruce budworm. III. Types Of Life Table 1. Age Specific (or Horizontal) Life Table: It is based on the fate of a real cohort, conveniently the members of a population belonging to a single generation and of same age. The population may be stationary or fluctuating. 2. Stage Specific (or Vertical) Life Table: It is based on the fate of an imaginary cohort found by determining the age structure. Here population remains stationary with considerable overlapping of generations. According to Hasan and Ansari (2009), age specific survivorship (lx) of Earias vitella (Fabricius) decreased from 1 st to 10 th day while, survivorship was greatly reduced on the 38 th day whereas the highest mortality (dx) was noticed on the 36 th day (15 %) and on the basis of stage specific life table, the apparent mortality (100qx) of eggs were calculated (16 %). Life fecundity tables Hemchandra and Singh (2003) reported that pre-oviposition period of Plutella xylostella (Linnaeus) was on 21 st day of pivotal age and the female contributed the highest number of progeny (mx=70.013 females/female/day) in the life cycle during 24 th day of pivotal age. Arshad and Rizvi (2007) revealed that immature stages and pre-ovipositional period of Coccinella septempunctata L. on different aphid species and observed maximum on Macrosiphum rosae L. (0.5 to 39.5 days) and minimum on Aphis craccivora (K.) (0.5 to 30.5 days ) and also found that C. septempunctata produced maximum offspring on Lipaphis erysimi (K.) and minimum on M. rossae. Gedia et al. (2008a) studied the life fecundity data of Spodoptera litura (Fabricius) on cotton and indicated that pre-oviposition period ranged from 35 th to 36 th day of pivotal age and the female contributed the highest number of progeny (mx=104.90 females/female/day) in the life cycle during 39 th day of pivotal age also Gedia et al. (2008b) studied the life fecundity data of S. litura on groundnut and indicated that