Symptoms of damage:

• Larvae feed on the foliage, prefers flowers and buds
• When tender leaf buds are eaten symmetrical holes or cuttings can be seen upon unfolding of leaflets

Identification of the pest:

• Eggs: Spherical in shape and creamy white in colour, present singly
• Larva: Shows colour variation from greenish to brown. It has dark brown grey lines on the body with lateral white lines and also has dark and pale bands.
• Pupa: Brown in colour, occurs in soil, leaf, pod and crop debris
• Adult: Light pale brownish yellow stout moth. Forewings are olive green to pale brown with a dark brown circular spot in the centre. Hind wings are pale smoky white with a broad blackish outer margin.

Management:

• Deep summer ploughing
• Intercrop one rows of red gram for every 5 or 6 rows
• Install pheromone trap @ 5/ha
• Use Trichogramma chilonis @ 1 lakh/ha or Chrysoperla carnea @ 50000/ha at 40 and 50 days after sowing of groundnut can effectively check the pest
• Apply HaNPV @ 250 LE/ha or B.t (Bacillus thuringiensis) 1 kg/ha or 5% NSKE for monitoring eggs and early instar larvae
• Conserve the bio control population of spiders, long horned grasshoppers, preying mantids, robber fly, ants, green lace wing, damsel flies/dragon flies, flower bugs, shield bugs, lady bird beetles, ground beetle, predatory cricket, braconids, trichogrammatids, NPV, green muscardine fungus
• Spray any one of the following insecticide
• quinolphos 2ml/lit of water
• chloropyriphos 3ml/lit of water
• Imidacloprid 2ml/lit of water