PLANT PROTECTION 1 – Pests, Diseases and Weeds

PLANT PROTECTION 1 – Pests, Diseases and Weeds
Fig. 53. Cutworm damage (Family Noctuidae).
Left: Stem of seedling chewed off just above
ground level during the night. They also chew
holes in leaves, buds and fruit near the ground.
Right: Cutworm (caterpillar) is smooth-bodied,
30-40 mm long at maturity and may be olivegreen
to brown or almost black. When disturbed
they quickly curl up. Cutworms hide in soil near
damaged plants during the day.
Fig. 54. Leafminer (moth) damage to bottlebrush (Callistemon
spp.) leaves. Note meandering mines made by the larva feeding
between the upper and lower leaf surfaces. Leafmining insects tend
to be host specific and may attack both exotic and native plants.
PhotoCIT, Canberra (P.W.Unger).
Fig. 55. Lightbrown apple
moth (Epiphyas postvittana).
PhotoNSW Dept of Industry and
Investment (E.H.Zeck).
Enlarged x 4
1. Group of eggs laid on leaf
2. Caterpillar, slender, green;
when disturbed it wriggles
and drops down on a silken
thread. It feeds on buds,
flowers and leaves in
protected places by
webbing or rolling leaves or
flowering parts together
3. Pupa
4. Adult moth, adults are bellshaped
and vary in color.
Females are pale about 20
mm long, males are smaller
and show variable colour
patterns
Actual size
5. Eggs on leaf
6. Caterpillar on citrus leaf
7. Empty pupal shell from
which moths have emerged
8. Adult moth resting on leaf
9. Apple showing injury by
caterpillar feeding on the
surface
10. Caterpillar damage to citrus
leaf
Insects and allied pests - Lepidoptera (butterflies, moths) 83