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Manatha albipes Moore (Lepidoptera: Psychidae), an emerging pest of banana and arecanut in South India, with notes on diagnosis, biology, natural enemies and DNA sequence data

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Abstract

Manatha albipes Moore, hitherto known as a minor pest of palms in India and Sri Lanka, is reported here as an emerging pest of banana and arecanut on a much larger scale from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in South India. The larvae feed on the foliage of banana and arecanut and the stem of arecanut by scraping the tissue and cause severe drying and defoliation. In this paper, life stages of the pest are briefly described with illustrations for the first time. Diagnostic characters of the adults, including genitalia, are illustrated and compared with those of M. taiwana (Sonan), its closest related species. The bagworm pest on banana, commonly identified as Kophene cuprea Moore by economic entomologists, was found to be a misidentification of M. albipes. In view of the extreme external similarity of M. albipes and M. taiwana, COI sequencing of M. albipes collected from arecanut and banana was done and the DNA sequence data was found to be a useful diagnostic tool for this species. COI sequences of M. albipes and M. taiwana showed differences in 53 nucleotides and M. albipes had 9.5% divergence with M. taiwana, confirming that they are distinct species. Additional host plants of M. albipes are listed. Natural enemies associated with M. albipes including three parasitoids (two species of Brachymeria (Chalcididae) and one unidentified tachinid) and one pentatomid predator (Eocanthecona furcellata (Wolff)) are reported for the first time.

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Data availability

Data and study material available at the National Research Centre for Banana; sequencing data deposited in GenBank.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to the Director, ICAR-National Research Centre for Banana, Trichy, for the facilities provided for this study. The first author was funded by an Ernst Mayr grant to visit the Natural History Museum, London, in 2019. We are grateful to Dr. David Lees, Lepidoptera expert, Natural History Museum, London, for enabling the examination of type material of M. albipes and K. cuprea and for confirming the species identity. The third author thanks the Director of Research, UAHS, Shivamogga, for funding under the Government of Karnataka grants.

Funding

Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Government of Karnataka, and Ernst Mayr Travel Grant (Harvard University).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICAR-National Research Centre for Banana, Tamil Nadu, Thogamalai Road, Thayanur Post, Trichy, 620102, India

    J. Poorani, C. Anuradha & R. Thanigairaj

  2. Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Shivamogga, 577204, Karnataka, India

    C. M. Kalleshwaraswamy

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  1. J. Poorani
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  2. C. Anuradha
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  3. C. M. Kalleshwaraswamy
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  4. R. Thanigairaj
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Contributions

JP: Planning, execution, imaging and manuscript preparation; CA: COI sequencing and analysis; CMK: Field surveys in Karnataka and COI sequencing (arecanut); RT: Field surveys in Tamil Nadu.

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Correspondence to J. Poorani.

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Poorani, J., Anuradha, C., Kalleshwaraswamy, C.M. et al. Manatha albipes Moore (Lepidoptera: Psychidae), an emerging pest of banana and arecanut in South India, with notes on diagnosis, biology, natural enemies and DNA sequence data. Phytoparasitica 50, 101–115 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12600-021-00942-8

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