Biological Control of Insect Pests: Southeast Asian Prospects - EcoPort

186 Biological Control of Insect Pests: Southeast Asian Prospects
Leucinodes orbonalis GuenŽe
Rating
Origin
Distribution
Lepidoptera: Pyralidae
brinjal fruit borer, eggplant fruit and shoot borer
Southeast Asia China Southern and Western Pacific
+++ Viet, Brun, Phil
18 ++ Myan, Camb, Msia ++ absent
+ Thai, Laos, Sing
P Indo
According to Purseglove (1968), eggplant ( Solanum melongena)
is native to
India and there are certainly many varieties in cultivation there. It is
probably safe to conclude that L. orbonalis is also native to India, although it
is not confined to eggplant and also occurs widely in Africa (see below).
Leucinodes orbonalis is closely related to Central American Neoleucinodes
species such as N. elegantalis,
which is a widespread pest there of eggplant,
and other Solanaceae. This suggests that parasitoids of Neoleucinodes may
be of interest for Leucinodes and vice versa.
L. orbonalis occurs in the Indian subcontinent (Andaman Is, India,
Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka), Southern Asia all 10 Southeast
Asian nations, also Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Japan, Africa (Burundi,
Cameroon, Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi,
Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa,
Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe) (CIE 1976; Tamaki and Miyara 1982;
Whittle and Ferguson 1987; Veenakumari et al. 1995) and is also reported
from Congo (Dhankar 1988) and Saudi Arabia (FAO 1982). It is not
recorded from Australasia, Oceania, the Americas or Europe and was
apparently absent until recently from the Philippines (CIE 1976), although
Navasero (1983) has now reported it there. Between 1977 and 1987 there
were 1291 interceptions of L. orbonalis at U.S. ports of entry, most on eggplant
fruit in passenger baggage (Whittle and Ferguson 1987), and there
must be significant risks also of its entry to Australia and the Pacific.