Ecology and life cycle
Eggs are scale like and translucent white to dark yellow. These naked clusters consist of nearly 60 overlapping rows. [5]
First-instar larvae are greyish white with a black head. Head capsule gradually turns brown towards final stages. Full-grown larvae are yellow, with five, dim, longitudinal lines, and can grow to a length of about 25 mm. [5]
Apart from the major food plant, rice, larvae also feed on wide array of plants such as Gigantochloa verticellata , Echinochloa crusgalli cruspavonis , Echinochloa stagnina , Eleusine indica , Panicum sp., Paspalum conjugatum , Amaranthus sp., Phragmites australis , Raphanus raphanistrum , Sclerostachya fusca , Sorghum sp., Typha latifolia , Xanthium strumarium , and Zizania aquatica . [5]
Pupation takes place in a stem of the food plant. Pupae are reddish brown with two ribbed crest on the pronotal margins. Several spines are located in the cremaster on the last abdominal segment. [5]
There are two different populations of rice stem borer, one associated with rice and the other with Water Oats (Zizania latifolia). Biological differences between these populations, including the time at which mating occurs, which suggested that there may be cryptic species. Genetic analyses have indicated, however, that there is gene flow between these host-associated populations [6]
Crambidae comprises the grass moth family of lepidopterans. They are variable in appearance, with the nominal subfamily Crambinae taking up closely folded postures on grass stems where they are inconspicuous, while other subfamilies include brightly coloured and patterned insects that rest in wing-spread attitudes.
The Pyralidae, commonly called pyralid moths, snout moths or grass moths, are a family of Lepidoptera in the ditrysian superfamily Pyraloidea. In many classifications, the grass moths (Crambidae) are included in the Pyralidae as a subfamily, making the combined group one of the largest families in the Lepidoptera. The latest review by Eugene G. Munroe and Maria Alma Solis retain the Crambidae as a full family of Pyraloidea.
The Pyraloidea are a moth superfamily containing about 16,000 described species worldwide, and probably at least as many more remain to be described. They are generally fairly small moths, and as such, they have been traditionally associated with the paraphyletic Microlepidoptera.
Echinochloa frumentacea is a species of Echinochloa. Both Echinochloa frumentacea and E. esculenta are called Japanese millet. This millet is widely grown as a cereal in India, Pakistan, and Nepal. Its wild ancestor is the tropical grass Echinochloa colona, but the exact date or region of domestication is uncertain. It is cultivated on marginal lands where rice and other crops will not grow well. The grains are cooked in water, like rice, or boiled with milk and sugar. Sometimes it is fermented to make beer. While also being part of staple diet for some communities in India, these seeds are, in particular, eaten during religious fasting. For this reason, these seeds are commonly also referred to as "vrat ke chawal" in Hindi. Other common names to identify these seeds include oodalu (ಊದಲು) in Kannada, Shyamak (শ্যামাক) or Shyama Chal in Bangla, jhangora in the Garhwal Hills, bhagar (भगर) in Marathi-speaking areas, samo or morio seeds in Gujarati, or kuthiraivaali (குதிரைவாளி) in Tamil.
Chilo phragmitella is a species of moth of the family Crambidae, sometimes referred to by the vernacular names wainscot veneer or reed veneer. It was first described by Jacob Hübner between 1805 and 1810 as Tinea phragmitella, and is the type species of the genus Chilo.
Maliarpha separatella, the African white stemborer, is a species of moth of the family Pyralidae. A worldwide paddy pest, it is found throughout African countries of Cameroon, Mali, Réunion, Madagascar, South Africa, and many Asian paddy cultivating countries such as Myanmar, India, and Sri Lanka. Though they are reported from China and Papua New Guinea, they are also known to attack sugarcane.
Eldana is a genus of moths of the family Pyralidae containing only one species, the African sugar-cane borer, which is commonly found in Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and South Africa. Adults have pale brown forewings with two small spots in the centre and light brown hindwings, and they have a wingspan of 35mm. This species is particularly relevant to humans because the larvae are a pest of the Saccharum species as well as several grain crops such as sorghum and maize. Other recorded host plants are cassava, rice and Cyperus species. When attacking these crops, E. saccharina bores into the stems of their host plant, causing severe damage to the crop. This behavior is the origin of the E. saccharrina's common name, the African sugar-cane borer. The African sugar-cane borer is a resilient pest, as it can survive crop burnings. Other methods such as intercropping and parasitic wasps have been employed to prevent further damage to crops.
Sesamia inferens, the Asiatic pink stem borer, gramineous stem borer, pink borer, pink rice borer, pink rice stem borer, pink stem borer, purple borer, purple stem borer or purplish stem borer, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Francis Walker in 1856. It is found from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar to Japan and the Solomon Islands. A polyphagous species, it is a major pest in many crops worldwide.
Chilo plejadellus, the rice stalk borer moth, is a moth in the family Crambidae described by Johann Leopold Theodor Friedrich Zincken in 1821. It is found in North America, including Illinois, Ontario, Quebec, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Texas and Arkansas.
Scirpophaga incertulas, the yellow stem borer or rice yellow stem borer, is a species of moth of the family Crambidae. It was described by Francis Walker in 1863. It is found in Afghanistan, Nepal, north-eastern India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Sumba, Sulawesi, the Philippines, Taiwan, China and Japan.
Chilo agamemnon is a species of moth in the family Crambidae described by Stanisław Błeszyński in 1962. It is found in Spain, Egypt, Israel, Sudan and Uganda.
Chilo auricilius, the gold-fringed rice stemborer or terai borer, is a moth in the family Crambidae. It was described by Gerald C. Dudgeon in 1905. It is found in India, Taiwan, Bhutan and Sri Lanka, as well as on Sulawesi, Borneo, Sangir Island and the Moluccas. The larvae bore into and feed on the stems of various grass family plants including sugarcane, rice and maize.
Chilo infuscatellus, the yellow top borer or sugarcane shoot borer, is a moth in the family Crambidae. It was described by the Dutch entomologist Samuel Constantinus Snellen van Vollenhoven in 1890. It is found in India, Myanmar, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines and on Java and Timor.
Chilo partellus, the spotted stalk borer or spotted stem borer, is a moth in the family Crambidae. It was described by Charles Swinhoe in 1885. It is found in India, Pakistan, Iran, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and on Mayotte.
Bissetia steniellus is a moth in the family Crambidae. It was first described by the British entomologist George Hampson in 1899. It is found in India and Vietnam where it is commonly known as the Gurdaspur borer because the larvae bore their way into and feed on the stems of sugarcane.
A stemborer is any insect larva, or arthropod, that bores into plant stems. However the term most frequently refers among the Coleoptera to the larva of certain longhorn beetles such as Dorysthenes buqueti and those of the genus Oberea, and among the Lepidoptera to certain moths of the Crambidae, Castniidae, Gelechiidae, Nolidae, and Pyralidae families.
Sturmiopsis inferens is a species of fly in the family Tachinidae. It is native to Asia and is a parasitoid of various moth species whose larvae feed inside the stems of sugarcane, rice and other large grasses, including the Gurdaspur borer and the sugarcane shoot borer.
Trichogramma japonicum is a minute wasp parasitoid from the Trichogrammatidae family in the order Hymenoptera. T. japonicum parasitizes the eggs of many pest species, especially Lepidoptera found in many monocultures. They are entomophagous parasitoids that deposit their eggs inside the host species' egg, consuming the host egg material and emerging from the egg once development is complete. T. japonicum can be found naturally in rice ecosystems, but are dispersed commercially to many monocultures as a biological control. The mitochondrial genomes of T. japonicum are significantly rearranged when comparing it to related insects.
