l66 



PESTS OF VEGETABLE CRdP^. 



Fig. 188. 

 Brmjal Fruit Borer. {Magnified three times.) 



These caterpillars bore tunnels in the stems and branches of the plant, 



living" inside and feeding* upon 

 the tissue of the plant. They 

 are whitish coloured insects, 

 smooth and generally similar 

 to other borer caterpillars. 

 The eggs from which they 

 hatch are deposited upon the 

 plant singly, and the little 

 caterpillar at once bores into the stem. When full grown the caterpillar 

 pupates, making a cocoon for itself on the plant, on the ground or more 

 rarely in the tunnel of the stem. The pupa stage lasts from eight 

 to twelve days in warm weather and the moths emerge. The whole 

 life history occupies about one month in the warm weather and up to 

 three months in the cold. These moths are of very distinct appearance ; 

 one* is a small brown insect, with narrow 

 fringed wings and sharply upturned palps ; it 

 superficially resembles moths such as the Pink 

 Boll-worm Moth (page 94) or the Cotton Bud- 

 Worm Moth (page 100). We may call this the 

 moth of the stem-borer caterpillar, since the 

 caterpillar is principally in the main stem. 

 The other moths are both white ; one^ (fig. 189) 

 has brown and black speckles on the wings, and 

 the larva has a rather pinkish colour (fig. 188) ; 

 it is found commonly in the fruit of the 

 plant and we may call it the " fruit borer.''^ The other ^ is slightly 

 smaller, white, with a broad green blotch on the wing. It is a quite 

 distinct insect and easily recognised. Its larva bores only in the upper 

 branches of the plant, tunnelling in the soft shoots. We may call it the 

 " shoot-borer.'^ 



The stem-borer is found principally in the lower part of the stem 

 near the ground ; it attacks plants at all stages and is a serious pest. 

 Where brinjal is grown as a long crop, quite thirty per cent, of the old 

 plants may be attacked and killed; the plants wither suddenly when 

 the larva cuts through the cambium layer of the main ste^ ; such 

 withered plants are common in the fields when the crop has been grow- 

 ing for some months. The shoot-borer is a comparatively harmless insect. 



Fig. 189. 

 Brinjal Fruit Borer. 



* 2. Fn&ophera perticella. Rag. (Pyralidje.) 



2 109. Leucinodes orbonalis. Guen. (Pyialidfe.) 



* 154. Fullemma olivaeea, Wlk, (Noctuidae.) 



