Abstract

This is a very serious pest of dry crops and its occurrence is more or less an annual feature in most of the red sandy loam tracts of the south. A full-grown specimen measures about 2" in length and is reddish brown in colour, with numerous hairs on its body. The caterpillars are polyphagous in habits, as they feed freely on almost any green vegetation, but among cultivated crops, they are particularly destructive to groundnut and cumbu. They feed freely also on ragi, cowpea, castor, cholam, cotton etc. The pest generally occurs in its millions in definite broods and moves from field to field in a particular direction. In the case of groundnut, the damage is something terrific, since the entire foliage and flowers are grazed away, leaving the fields bare with the stems and the midribs of the leaves. The yield from such infested fields is reduced practi- cally to nothing. The season of incidence of the pest may vary from tract to tract, as it is influenced, to large extent by the local rainfall and the agricultural practices as well.

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