Spilarctia (= Spilosoma) obliqua Arctiidae:...
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BIHAR HAIRY CATERPILLAR Spilarctia (= Spilosoma) obliqua Arctiidae: Lepidoptera • It is a highly polyphagous pest. Dr. Harikesh SIngh
Transcript of Spilarctia (= Spilosoma) obliqua Arctiidae:...
BIHAR HAIRY CATERPILLAR Spilarctia (= Spilosoma) obliqua
Arctiidae: Lepidoptera
• It is a highly polyphagous pest.
Dr. Harikesh SIngh
Distribution
• Distribution and status:
– Sporadic pest widely distributed in the Orient. It is very serious in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab
• Host range:
• Besides sunflower, it infests millets, cotton, jute, sunhemp, castor, cauliflower, cabbage etc.
• It has been reported to feed on 96 plant species in India.
Dr. Harikesh SIngh
Adult • The adult is dull yellow with oblique line of black dots on wings.
• The dorsal side of the abdomen is red with dull yellow ventral side.
• Adult lives for 7 days.
Dr. Harikesh SIngh
Dr. Harikesh SIngh
EGGS • Pest breeds from March to April and again
from July to November.
• Adult female lays 400-1000 light green, spherical eggs in clusters on the underside of the leaves.
• Initially eggs are greenish in colour, slowly turn into yellow but before hatching they turn brown
• Egg period 8-13 days.
Dr. Harikesh SIngh
Dr. Harikesh SIngh
Dr. Harikesh SIngh
Larvae
• After hatching larvae feed eggshell first.
• They are tiny yellow coloured about 2-3mm in size
• The full grown larva is darkened with yellowish brown abdomen having numerous pale white brown and black hairs and measures about 43 mm.
• Larval instars 7 and period 30-56 days.
Dr. Harikesh SIngh
Dr. Harikesh SIngh
Dr. Harikesh SIngh
Dr. Harikesh SIngh
Pupae
• Pupation takes place in plant debris or soil.
• Pupa is obtact crimson red coloured.
• Pupal period 7-15 days.
Dr. Harikesh SIngh
Nature of damage and symptoms
• Early instars are gregarious and later instars disperse in
search of food.
• Initially they scrap the chlorophyll content on the surface
of the leaf.
• Second instar larvae feed on leaf escaping only veins.
• Third instar larvae disperse and start to feed whole leaf
lamina or by making hole in the leaf with the help of
biting and chewing type of mouth parts.
Dr. Harikesh SIngh
Dr. Harikesh SIngh
Dr. Harikesh SIngh
Dr. Harikesh SIngh
Management
• Organize campaign to collect and destroy the pupae after summer ploughing on receipt of showers.
• Grow cowpea or red gram as an intercrop to attract adult moths to lay more eggs.
• Set up 3-4 light traps and bonfires immediately at the onset of rains at 4 weeks after sowing in the rainfed season to attract and kill the moths and to know brood emergence.
• Collect and destroy egg masses in the groundnut, cowpea and redgram.
• Collect and destroy gregarious early instar larvae on lace like leaves of inter crops viz., red gram and cowpea.
Dr. Harikesh SIngh
• Organize campaign by involving school children (or) general public to collect
and destroy the migrating grown up caterpillars from the field.
• Dig out a trench around the field to avoid the migration of caterpillars, trap
larvae and kill them.
• Use nuclear polyhedrosis virus @ 250 LE/ha.
• For young caterpillars - apply endosulfan 4D 25 kg/ha (or) carbaryl 10 D 25
kg/ha.
• Organize mass ground spraying in endemic areas if necessary in the case of
outbreak of the pest.
• For grown up caterpillars - spray endosulfan 750 ml/ha (or) dichlorvos 625
ml/ha (or) chlorpyriphos 1250 ml/ha in 375 litres of water.
Dr. Harikesh SIngh
