Symptoms of damage

• Beetles occur solitarily or in swarms and devour all the floral parts.
• Adult beetles feed on floral parts including petals, anthers, stigma and ovary and reduces the numbers of pods that are set.
• Inflorescence totally becomes barren without flowers and may dry up

Identification of the pest

Eggs
• Cylindrical and yellowish 60 – 80 eggs laid on the ground deep in soil.
• Egg period lasts 30-40 days.
Larva
• First stage larva is predatory called, ‘triungulin’ (legs with three claws) and actively searches for the host.
• They feed on grasshopper eggs laid in soil.
• They moult five times to become eruciform or caraboid.
Pupa
• Pupates in the soil.
Adult:
• Medium to big sized, 12.5-25.0 mm long.
• Conspicuous in appearance and are moderately robustly built with red, black, orange or white bands on wings.

Integrated Management

• Manual picking of beetles by wearing hand gloves or any protective cover when they gather in swarm on plants may be quite successful.
• Timely application of insecticides with fumigant action in the early morning hours will reduce the infestation.