Tobacco Caterpillar in  cotton

Cosmopolitan and Polyphagous pest attacking rice, tobacco, tomato, maize, citrus, castor, groundnut, legumes and many other vegetables.

Appearance:

Moths are stout, medium sized, with pale grey to dark brown forewings having white wavy criss-cross markings. Hind wings are whitish. Caterpillar is stout, velvety, smooth, dark brown with yellowish green dorsal stripes. Incomplete ring like dark bands may be seen on the anterior and posterior part of the body.

                Adult                                         Larva

Life cycle:

Eggs are laid in groups and covered with brown hair.

         Egg mass

Nature of damage:

• Soon after hatching, the caterpillars feed gregariously by scraping the chlorophyll making the lamina appear translucent and membranous.
• Grown up caterpillars feed individually making large irregular holes in the leaves during night, hiding in the soil during day time.

Damage symptoms:

• Membranous leaves without any chlorophyll
• Large irregular holes on the leaves.

               Damaged Leaves                             Hole on flower