Symptoms
- These are smooth cater pillars(Image1). In the young stages, they can be seen in masses on the leaves scraping the green matter resulting in scarring on the leaves.
- Grown up caterpillars hide in the leaf axils or at the plant base in soil or undersurface of dried leaves and bore the emerging leaf entering from the leaf axils. This results in occurrence of bore holes in a pattern as the leaf unfurls.(Image2)
Procedure for Observation
Select 5 plants at random from 10 cent plot .Assess the intensity of damage as:
Mild : Irregular holes ,< 10 % of the leaf area damaged
Moderate.10-20 %
Severe > 20%
ETL
10%.