The aim of this research was to carry out the population survey and check an occurrence of lepidopterous associated to castor bean plantation in Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. The population study was performed in castor bean plantation, AL Guarany 2002 cultivate, implemented in the experimental area Soils Department at Federal University of Santa Maria, in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul State. The sow occurred in the first fifteen days of november of 2006, in an area of around 0,3 ha. The weekly appraisement started 20 days after the emergency of the plants and went until their maturation, creating a total of 15 evaluations, being the caterpillars hand collected in 40 random plants/ date of evaluation. The collected samples were brought to the Laboratory of Entomology at DFS/ UFSM, where they were kept until adulthood. Spodoptera marima Schs. (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and Erinnyis ello L. (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) represented for 15.2 and 28.3% of the amount of collected caterpillars, respectively. So, this study reports the first occurrence of these two lepidopterous species associated to castor bean plantation in Rio Grande do Sul State.
Ricinus communis L.; rising; entomofauna