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

1. White grub- Holotrichia impressa Burm. (Melolonthidae: Coleoptera)

Damage

• The grub feeds on roots causing drying of young plants.
  
• It also eats away the bark of stem below the soil surface.
Bionomics

• The adult beetle is redddish brown in colour.
• It lays eggs in soil. The grub is white, fleshy, 'C shaped. It pupates in an earthern cell.
• The life cycle occupies a year in the plains while at higher altitudes it may takes up to two years.