Biology and damage of Banana skipper Erionota torus (evans) from Malabar region of Kerala Abdul Jaleel K*, Ghosh S M1 Department of Zoology, Government College, Vidhyanagar, Kasaragod, 671123 1Department of Molecular Biology, Kannur University, Nileswar, Kasaragod, 671314 *Email: jaleelkabdul@gmail.com (corresponding author)
Online published on 24 September, 2020. Abstract Infestation of hespirid butterfly, banana leaf roller Erionota torus Evans was observed for the first time on banana in the cultivating areas of Malabar region of Kerala, a part of southern Western Ghats. Adult butterflies lay small creamy yellow eggs on the under surface of leaves. After hatching these damage leaves by rolling and feeding. The incubation, larval and pupal periods ranged from 7± 1, 24± 1 and 10± 1 days, respectively (n= 25). The various larval instars feed on almost all cultivars of banana and cause severe damage. This lowers yields by delayed fruit maturity, reduced bunch size and preventing the traditional use of leaves. The infestation % was more during monsoon and post monsoon seasons, ranging from 10 to 40% and up to 50% loss of plant leaf area. Preflowered plant showed more infestation (37%), and damaged leaves in preflowered, flowered and bunched plants were 5± 1, 3.8± 0.4 and 2.5± 0, respectively (n=100). Number of leaf roll/plant was 11± 3 (n=100) and length of leaf used to build the nest ranged from 20± 5 cm (n=100). Top Keywords Banana, Skipper, Western Ghats, Erionota torus, E. thrax, Hesperiidae, Infestation, Biology, Seasonal variation, Host stage, Damage, Loss. Top |