PEST MANAGEMENT IN FOREST NURSERIES

MAJOR PESTS

DEFOLIATORS

This group include a wide variety of leaf feeding beetles belonging to families Melolonithidae, Chrysomelidae and Curculionidae (Coleoptera), leaf feeding caterpillars (Lepidoptera) and grasshoppers (Orthoptera) which cause damage to the foliage of the nursery stock. Among the leaf feeding beetles, important defoliators are species of genera Psiloptera, Sternocera (Buprestidae), Amblyrrhindus, Apoderus, Dereodus and Myllocerus (Currculionidore). The adult beetles are polyphagous feeders of foliage and damage seedlings of many forest species in forest species in forest nurseries and plantations. The infested leaves may dry up and drop.

The lepidopterous leaf feeders include a major group of defoliators. Larvae either devour the entire leaf tissue or skeletonise it. Some times, young larvae prepare a shelter either by binding two or more adjoining leaves or by rolling the leaves and then feeding on the soft green tissues of the leaves. Important species belong to Ascotis, Hyposidra(Geometridoe), Dasychira, Euproctis, Lymantria (Lymantridae), Heliothis and Spodotera (Noctuidae) and Atteva (Yponomeutidae).