Effect of temperature on development rate and intrinsic rate of increase of Aphis gossypii reared on greenhouse cucumbers

Abstract Thermal requirements for development and life table statistics of Aphis gossypii Glover (Homoptera, Aphididae) were determined over a range of constant temperatures from 10 to 30 °C. The lower development threshold and the sum of effective temperatures were 6.9 °C and 90.1 °C, respectively, for preimaginal development, and 5.8 °C and 113.6 °C from birth to the onset of reproduction. Mean total fecundity ranged from 36 larvae per female at 10 °C to 76 larvae at 30 °C. On a time scale of days, net reproductive rate ( R o ) increased with increasing temperature while generation time ( T ) decreased causing the intrinsic rate of increase ( r m ) to increase linearly from 0.115 to 0.465. On a day‐degree scale r m only varied from 0.019 to 0.028 because the growth of R o was compensated by an increase in T with increase in temperature. The nearly constant r m in terms of day‐degrees, over a wide range of temperatures, greatly simplifies the prediction of future population numbers of A. gossypii.