• These appear sporadically in enormous populations at intervals of several years and cause heavy damage to the foliage.
• Caterpillars are gregarious in habit and they congregate on the trunks of shade trees during day time and drop down on the cardamom plants during night time.
• They fed voraciously on leaves and defoliating the whole cardamom plants.
• Usually the damage is observed during October-December

Identification of pest:

E. cardamomi

• Eggs: Dome shaped and lay on undersurface of the leaves of shade trees.
• Larva:  Robust, bluish black with pale brown head, white hairs and dorsal conical tuff of hairs.  
• Pupa: Pupation takes place in soil
• Adult: Large moth, pale yellow with wavy lines and a series of spots near the outer margin of wings

• Eggs: Pale yellowish in colour and lays on the undersurface of the leaves of shade trees.
• Larva:  Robust with red head and black ‘V’ shaped vertex border.
• Pupa: Pupation takes place in soil
• Adult:  Large moth brownish yellow with two diagonal bunds and zig zag lines on wings.

• Larva:  Robust, dark purplish brown with black head, grey tipped long hairs and red prologs.
• Pupa: Pupation takes place on dried leaves
• Adult: Large bright yellow moth with prominent black wavy lines and patches on wings.

• Hairy caterpillar incidence can be checked by lopping off and burning branches of shade trees in which eggs are laid.
• Gradual elimination of shade trees favoured for egg laying will reduce the incidence.
• Caterpillars that congregate at the base of shade trees can be collected and killed.
• Moths can be attracted to light during night and by installing light traps, the moths can be collected and killed.

Image source:

http://www.nbair.res.in/insectpests/Eupterote.php