Sesamia inferens
Common name : The Pink Borer or Purple Stem Borer
Order
Lepidoptera
Family
Noctuidae
Distribution
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, South-east Asia, China, Korea, Japan, Philippines, Indonesia, Papua, New Guinea, West Iran, the Solomon Isles, Malaysia, Taiwan and Burma.
Host
The pink borer is a polyphagous pest. Rice, maize, sugarcane, wheat, bulrush millet, finger millet and many other grasses. The caterpillars are pinkish-brown dorsally and white ventrally and have a smooth cylindrical body, measuring about 25 mm. The moth is stout straw coloured with faint fore wings having three small black discal dots and an intermediate brown strip. The hind wings and thorax are white (Plate 1).
Life-cycle
The pest is nocturnal in habit. The females lay eggs in 1 to 3 rows within the leaf sheath, some 30-100 eggs per batch. The eggs are bead-like. The incubation period is about 6-8 days. Larval period is 3-4 weeks. Pupation takes place inside the stem or in between the stem and leaves. The pupal period lasts about 7 days. Total developmental period is completed within 6-7 weeks. There are 4-5generations of the pest in a year. After rice crop, the pest migrates to the wheat crop.
Damage
The larvae bore into the stem of young plants and kill the central shoot causing 'dead-heart'. The older plants are generally not killed but have extensive part of the stem hollowed (stem tunnelling), with a consequent physical weakening of the site. There is a considerable reduction in grain yield.
Control
Same as mentioned under 'Yellow Stem Borer', S. incertulas.
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