Insect Pests of Fruit, Plantation, Medicinal & Aromatic Crops (2+1)

1. Shoot webber

1. Shoot webber- Orthaga exvinacea Hmps. (Pyraustidae: Lepidoptera)

Damage

• The larva webs together the leaves and feed on them.
• The infested leaves wither and dry up. In case of severe attack, a tree shows many webbed nests of leaves presenting on the whole a sickly appearance.





Bionomics

• The adult moth is greyish with dark patches on the wings.
• It lays eggs in small clusters on the silken webbing's or singly on the ribs of the leaves.
• Fecundity is 30-50 egg / female.
  
• The egg period is 4 days.
• The larva is pale green with dark bands.
• The larval period is about a month.
  
• It undergoes 5 instars and pupates within silken cocoon in the webbed up clusters for 1 -14 days.
Management

• Remove and destroy webbed leaves along with larvae and pupae.
• Spray carbaryl 50 WP at 0.1%.
• Encourage activity of predators, carabid beetle Parena lacticincta; reduviid Oecama sp; parasitoid Hormiusa and fungus Paecilomyces farinosus.