Tomato fruit borer

Tomato fruit borer

1. Tomato fruit borer, Helicoverpa armigera (Noctuidae: Lepidoptera)

Distribution: Cosmopolitan in distribution

Host plants: Polyphagous, infests over 100 host plants including chickpea, cotton, caster, tomato, cowpea, millets, linseed, tobacco, safflower, pigeon pea, okra, carnation etc.

Damage:
  • Damage is caused by the larva
  • Feed on the foliage, flowers, buds and fruits.
  • Small green fruits are preferred
  • Single larva can destroy many fruits
  • The damage is more pronounced during March to June
Identification:
  • Eggs: yellowish white, ribbed, dome shaped and 0.4-0.5 mm in dia.
  • Larvae: Newly emerged are yellowish white where as older can be of many colours depending upon the food they consume. Full grown caterpillars are 40-48 mm long with whitish and dark gray longitudinal stripes.
  • Adults:
    • Medium sized stoughtly built moths.
    • Forewing is light yellow in males and brown in females.
    • On the apical margin of forewings, wavy lines in the form of light black band are visible and a black spot appears on the upper side of the wing.
    • On the tip of the abdomen there is a tuft of hairs in case of females, nevertheless, the tuft of hairs is absent in males.
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Life cycle:
  • Incubation period: 2-5 days
  • Larval period: 15-22 days
  • Prepupal period: 1-2 days
  • Pupal period: 10-14 days
  • Adult longevity: 6-10 days
  • Fecundity: 300-800 eggs
Salient features:
  • Eggs are laid singly on leaves, flower and fruits.
  • Young larvae feed on tender foliage and older bore fruits
  • Caterpillars thrust only a part of their body inside the fruit and feed on the inner contents.
  • Single larva can destroy 2-8 fruits
  • Partially damaged fruits are attacked by other microbes
  • The caterpillars are cannibalistic.
Management:
  • Use of resistant varieties like Punjab Kesari, Punjab Chhaura, Pant Bahar, Azad, Pusa Hybrid-4 etc.
  • Deep summer ploughing to expose the pupae to the sunlight and natural enemies.
  • African marigold as trap crop.
  • Pheromone traps (5 traps/ ha) of moths for monitoring
  • Monitoring of top three leaves for egg laying
  • Spray of HaNPV @ 250 LE/ha at weekly intervals
  • Bt formulation @ 0.5 Kg/ha.
  • Periodic releases of egg parasitoid, Trichogramma chilonis or T. pretiosum @ 100000 /ha.
  • Spray of NSKE @ 4.0 per cent
  • Emergency spray of cypermethrin (0.0075%) or deltamethrin(0.0028%)
  • Natural enemies like Campoletis chloridae, Bracon brevicornis and Trichogramma spp are active in nature
Last modified: Saturday, 3 March 2012, 6:02 AM