Symptom of damage:
-
White patches along margin of one side of leaf towards the tip with holes and is referred as marginal blotching.
-
Damaged leaves easily break and hang down near tip; Clear or yellow spots on inner margins of emerging leaves.
-
Damage becomes visible when the leaves emerge from the whorl as pinholes and white and yellowish lesions on the leaf edge.
Identification of the pest:
-
Egg: White, cigar shaped egg laid singly on either side of the leaves .
-
Maggot: Newly hatched Maggots is transparent to very light cream in colour but later become yellow. Maggots move down the leaf into the whorl on a film of dew and feed within developing whorls. Maggots mostly remain outside the leaves and feed on the mesophyll tissue of the foliage. When leaves emerge from the whorl damage can be seen as pinholes in the leaves and white and yellowish lesions on the leaf edge.
-
Pupa: Pupation takes place in between the leaf sheath where the pupa is loosely attached to the stem. The puparium is light to dark brown ovoid and sub-cylindrical in shape.
-
Adult: Adult dark grey flies, 1.8-2.3 mm in size.
Management:
ETL: 25% damaged leaves
|
|
