46 ratings Error! Filename not specified. Pomegranate Insect Pests Anar butterfly/ Pomegranate fruit borer Stem borer W...
46 ratings
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Pomegranate Insect
Pests
- Anar butterfly/ Pomegranate fruit borer
- Stem borer
- Whitefly
- Shot hole borer
- Thrips
- Tailed mealy bug
- Aphid
- IPM for Pomegranate
Anar butterfly/ Pomegranate fruit borer
Biology:
- Eggs: Laid singly on tender leaves, stalks and flower
buds.
- Larvae - Bark brown, short and stout, covered with short
hairs, larval period lasts for 18-47 days.
- Pupation: Occurs either inside the damaged fruits or on the
stalk holding it. Pupal period lasts for 7-34 days. Total life cycle is
completed in 1 to 2 months.
- Adult - Bluish brown butterfly.
Damage
symptoms:
- Caterpillar bores into young
fruits.
- Feeds on internal contents
(pulp and seeds)
- Fruit rotting and dropping may
occur

Favourable
conditions:
- It is mostly prevalent during
the 'mrig' bahar.
- Fruit injury revealed at the
age of 30—50 days.
Life
cycle:

Stem borer
Biology
- Egg: Eggs are laid in young living plants in stems and
is deposited under the bark. The number of eggs laid by female is 20-40
- Grub: Newly emerged larva is about 1/4 of an inch long
the mature larva is about 2.1/2 inches long. On hatching the larva feeds
on the soft tissues around the oviposition cavity and then bores into the
stem and roots. The length of the larval period is about nine or ten
month.
- Pupal: Period is16 to 18 days. There is only one
generation per year and longevity of beetles is 45 to 60 days.
- Adult: Pale yellowish-brown body with light grey elytra
and are 30 to 35 mm long. The beetle emerges by eating a circular hole
through the bark. Adult beetles are 1.1/4 to 1.1/2 inches long, dull,
yellowishbrown, the sides of the body and legs bluish, elytra yellowish-grey
with a large number of black spots varying in size from a pin's head to
minute specks.
Damage
symptoms:
- The grubs bore inside the trunk
and feed on sapwood.
- Adult beetles are active by the
day and feed by gnawing the green bark of shoots.
- Holes on bark of main stems,
excreta and dry powdered material are usually seen near the base of
plants.
Life
cycle:

Natural
enemies of stem borer:
Predators: Damsel
bugs, elm leaf beetle, spiders, tachinid flies, big eyed bugs (Geocoris sp.), braconid
wasp
Whitefly
Biology:
- Eggs: Eggs are laid in a circle on the underside of
leaves.
- Nymph: short glass like rods of wax along the sides of
the body
- Adult: Powdery white, active during early morning hours.
Damage
symptoms:
- Nymphs and adults suck the sap
from leaves
- Honey dew - development of
sooty mould fungus
- Yellowing of leaves.
- Dropping of affected leaves.
Life
cycle:

Shot hole borer
Biology:
- Eggs are oval or round, shiny and iridescent white.
- Larvae are white and legless, and can be up to 4 mm
long.
- Adult is about 2-3 mm long, black to reddish-brown, and
cigar shaped. They have a short, stubbed head capsule, with chewing
mouthparts. Male adults do not fly. Two generations per year.
Damage
symptoms:
- Adult females bore into the
basal part of the stem and roots. Causes Small shot holes on roots, main
trunk, wilting and finally leads to death of the tree

Favourable
conditions:
- They survive in temperatures
ranging from -26 to 15°C. The flight activity is greatest late afternoon
or early evening and the beetles usually fly at or below 15 ft .
Life
cycle:

Natural
enemies of shot hole borer:
Parasitoids: Trichogramma, Tetrastichus spp., Telenomus spp., Chelonus blackburni, Carcelia spp. Campoletis chlorideae, Bracon spp.
Predators: Chrysoperla sp. rove beetles,
spiders, parasitic wasp, coccinellids, robber fly, dragonfly, Beduviid bug (Geocoris sp.), praying
mantis, fire ants, pentatomid bug (Eocanthecona
fucellata), earwigs, ground beetles, common mynah, king crow,
Thrips
Biology:
- The adults are minute, slender,
soft bodied insects with heavily fringed wings, blackish brown with
yellowish wings and measure 1.4 mm long. Scirtothrips dorsalis adult is
straw yellow in colour. The nymphs are minute yellowish brown in colour.
- Female lays on an average 50
dirty white bean-shaped eggs on the under surface of leaves.
- The incubation period is 3-8
days. Newly hatched nymphs are reddish and turn yellowish brown as they
grow.
- Pupal period lasts 2-5 days
Damage
symptoms:
- Both nymphs and adults feed on
the underside of the leaves by rasping the surface and sucking the oozing
cell-sap.
- Leaf tip turn brown and get
curled, drying and shedding of flowers and scab on fruits which will
reduce the market value.

Favourable
condition:
- · The incidence of this pest is
mainly seen from July to October with the peak period in September.
Life
cycle:

Natural
enemies of thrips:
- Parasitoids: Ceranisus
menes
- Predators: Syrphid fly, minute pirate bug, praying mantis,
predatory thrips, damsel bug, lace wing, coccinellid, spider etc.
Tailed mealy bug
Biology:
- The female laid eggs in groups
which lay beneath the body in a loose ovisac of waxy fibers.
- Fecundity (egg number) ranged
from 109 to 185 per generation.
- The oviposition period lasted
20-29 days.
- The incubation period lasted
about 3-4 hours.
- Female and male nymphs molted 3
and 4 times, respectively, and the development period varied from 26-47
and 31-57 days, respectively.
- Longevity of the adult female
was 36-53 days and for the male, 1-3 days.
Damage
symptoms:
- Premature dropping of fruit.

Favourable
conditions:
- Moist and warm conditions are
favourable.
Life
cycle:

Natural
enemies of mealy bug:
Predators: Menochilus sexmaculatus,Rodolia fumida,
Cryptolaemus montrozieri
Aphid
Biology:
- Eggs: Eggs hatch after one or two days. Young aphids,
called nymphs.
- Nymph: Oval or slightly elongated, reddish brown with
six segmented antennae
- Adult: Small yellowish green typically colonizing the
upper sides of mature leaves of pomegranate, concentrated along the
midribs and around the leaf margins; also found on flowers and, rarely,
fruits. Aphids reproduce in two ways: by laying eggs and laying live
young, which birth process is depends on environmental conditions and the
availability of food. When food is plentiful, aphids give birth to live
young. Populations develop quickly as this pest has many young, a short
life span and pre-adult insects can also give birth.
Damage
symptoms:
- Nymphs and adults suck the sap
from leaves, shoots and fruits
- Yellowing of leaves
- Wilting of terminal shoots.
<
Life
cycle:

Natural
enemies of aphids:
Predators: Parasitic
wasp, Chrysoperla sp.,
ladybird beetle, predatory mite, syrphid fly etc.
IPM for Pomegranate
To know
the IPM practices for Pomegranate, click here.
Source : NIPHM, Directorate of Plant Protection,
Quarantine & Storage
33 ratings
Insect pest of
Pomegranate in Hot Arid Region
- Pomegranate Butterfly (Deudorix
isocrates)
- Fruit sucking moths (Eudocima fullonica
& E. maternal)
- IPM for Pomegranate
Pomegranate Butterfly (Deudorix isocrates)
- It is widely distributed all
over India and is found wherever pomegranates are grown.
Host
Range
- It is a polyphagous pest having
a very wide range of host plants, including, aonla, apple, ber, citrus,
guava, litchi, loquat, mulberry, peach, pear, plum, pomegranate, sapota
and tamarind.
Nature of
Damage
- On hatching, the caterpillars
bore inside the developing fruits and are usually found feeding on pulp
and seeds just below the rind.
- As many as eight caterpillars
may be found in a single fruit.
- The conspicuous symptoms of
damage are offensive smell and excreta of the caterpillars coming out of
entry holes, the excreta are found stuck around the holes.

- Sometimes the holes may also be
seen plugged with the anal end of a caterpillar.
- The affected fruits ultimately
fall down and are of no use.
Description
- Eggs are laid singly on calyx
of flowers or tender fruits.
- Caterpillar is stoutly built
dirty brown in colour, with light patches, a few short hairs and measures
about 16-20 mm long.

- Larval period is 18-47 days.
- The adult is bluish brown.
- On female adult V shaped patch
on forewing.
Management
- Remove and destroy the affected
fruits.
- Before maturity, bag the fruits
with butter paper.
- Clip off calyx cup immediately
after pollination followed by two applications of neem oil @ 3 %.
- Release T. chilonis at 2.5
lakh/ha, four times at ten days interval has been recommended.
- At flowering stage, spray NSKE
5% or neem formulations 2 ml/1.
- Spray deltamethrin 2.8 EC (1.5
ml/litre of water) at fortnightly interval from the stage of flowering to
fruit development.
- Spray malathion 50 EC 0.1% or
azadirachtin 1500ppm @ 3.0 ml/l at 15 days intervals commencing from
initiation of flowering up to the harvesting subjected to the presence of
fruit borer
Fruit sucking moths (Eudocima fullonica & E. maternal)
- This pest is distributed in
Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Hawai, Thailand, India etc.
The caterpillars of these are leaf defoliators on weed hosts viz., Tinospora cardifolia, Cocculus
pendulus and C.
hirsutus.
Host
Range
- Besides citrus, it also attacks
pomegranate, grapes, apple, castor, ber, guava etc.
Nature of
Damage
- It is only the moths that are
destructive to citrus fruits.
- The moths are distinguished by
having particularly well developed proboscis with dentate tips with which
they are able to pierce the ripening fruits.
- The moths are nocturnal in
habit and may be seen flying about in orchards after dusk especially
during rainy season.
- The damaged fruits soon start
rotting as the punctured regions are easily infected with bacteria and
fungi and ultimately the fruits drop prematurely.
Description
- The adults of O. fullonica has
pale orange brown body with forewings dark greyish and the hind wings
orange red with two black curved patches.
- The adults of O. materna has
pale greenish gray upper wings with pale white markings and the lower
wings with a marginal dark brown region mixed with white spots and a
circular dark spot.

- The caterpillar is a
semilooper, dark brown with yellow and red spots.
- Full grown caterpillars are 50
- 60 mm long, stout, velvety-blue with yellow patterns on dorsal and
lateral sides and having a hump at anal end.
Management
- Systematic destruction of weed
host plants on which the caterpillars feed in the vicinity of orchards
helps to check the pest population.
- Bagging of fruits has been
suggested in small scale.
- Creating smoke in the orchards
after sunset may keep the pest at bay.
- Covering the entire orchard
with nylon net followed by spray with contact insecticide has been
recommended.
- Spraying oil emulsions once in
10 days to act as a deterrent.
- Poison baiting (20 g malathion
50% W.P. + 200 g jaggery or molasses in 2 L of water) has been found quite
affective.
Source: Insect Pest Of Arid Fruit Crops
IPM for Pomegranate
To know
the IPM practices for Pomegranate, click here.
19 ratings and
Error! Filename not specified.
Pomegranate Beneficial
insects
Natural Enemies of Pomegranate
Parasitoids
Egg Parasitoid:

Nymphal Parasitoid:

Larval Parasitoids:


Larval pupal parasitoids

Predators





IPM for Pomegranate
To know
the IPM practices for Pomegranate, click here.
Source : NIPHM, Directorate of Plant
Protection, Quarantine & Storage
32 ratings and
Pomegranate Crop Stage
Wise IPM
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Management |
Activity |
Pre planting*
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Common cultural practices:
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Nutrients |
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Weeds |
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Soil-borne pathogens, and resting stages of insects |
Cultural control:
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Bacterial leaf spot |
Cultural control:
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Planting*
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Common cultural practices:
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Nutrients |
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Weeds |
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Soil-borne pathogens, and resting stages of insects |
Cultural control:
Mechanical control:
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* Apply Trichoderma viride/ harzianum and Pseudomonas
fluorescens as seed/seedling/planting material, nursery treatment and soil
application (if commercial products are used, check for label claim. However,
biopesticides produced by farmers for own consumption in their fields,
registration is not required). |
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Vegetative stages
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Common cultural practices:
Common mechanical practices:
Common biological practices:
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Nutrients |
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Weeds |
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Shot hole borer |
Cultural control:
Mechanical control:
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Stem boring beetle |
Cultural control:
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Pomegranate butterfly |
Cultural control:
Mechanical control:
Biological control:
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Flowering and Fruiting
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Common cultural practices
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Nutrients |
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Weeds |
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Butterfly/fruit sucking moth |
Cultural control:
Mechanical control:
Biological control:
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Shot hole borer |
Mechanical control:
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Thrips |
Cultural control:
Mechanical control:
Biological control:
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Mealy bugs |
Cultural control:
Biological control:
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Aphid |
Cultural control:
Biological control:
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Whitefly |
Cultural control:
Biological control:
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Bacterial leaf and fruit spot |
Cultural control:
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Leaf and fruit spot |
Cultural control:
Chemical control:
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Anthracnose |
Cultural control:
Chemical control:
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Fruit rot & scab** |
Cultural control:
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Post harvest
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Pest & diseases |
Cultural methods: Mechanical control:
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Source : NIPHM, Directorate
of Plant Protection, Quarantine & Storage
33 ratings
Pomegranate Diseases
Bacterial leaf and fruit spot
Disease
symptoms:
- Appearance of one to several
small water soaked, dark colored irregular spots on leaves resulting in
premature defoliation under severe cases.
- The pathogen also infects stem
and branches causing girdling and cracking symptoms.
- Spots on fruits were dark brown
irregular slightly raised with oily appearance, which split open with
L-shaped cracks under severe cases.

Survival
and spread:
- Primary source of inoculum is
Infected cuttings
- Secondary source of inoculum
spreads through Wind splashed rains.
Favourable
conditions:
- The increase in day temperature
(38.6°C) and afternoon relative humidity of 30.4% along with cloudy
weather and intermittent rainfall favored the disease initiation and
further spread of the disease.
Leaf and fruit spot
Disease
symptoms:
- Leaf spots are minute, brown
with yellow halo.
- Spots are scattered, circular
or irregular and become dark brown with age.
- Spots on lower side are sunken
with clusters of spore bearing structures hence greyish in colour.
- Minute, circular, black spots
appear on sepals of the flower.
- Fruit spots are black, minute
and circular on rind.
- When grow old, become large,
irregularly circular and depressed presenting an ugly look to the fruits.

Favourable
conditions:
- Optimum temperature is 25-32°C
with night temperatures above 16°C, and a relative humidity of 90-95%.
Survival
and spread:
- Primary spread : Diseased plant
debris
- Secondary spread : Wind borne
conidia
Anthracnose
Disease
Symptoms:
- Small, regular to irregular
black spots on leaves, calyx region and fruits which turn later on as dark
brown depressed spots.
- Infected leaves turn yellow and
drop off.

Survival
and spread:
- Primary source of inoculum: Infected leaves
- Secondary source of inoculum: windborne conidia.
Favourable
conditions:
- The disease is severe during
August-September when there is high humidity, and the temperature
between 20-27ºC.
Fusarium wilt
Disease
symptoms:
- Affected plants show yellowing
of leaves in some twigs or branches, followed by drooping and drying of
leaves.
- The entire tree dies in few
months or a year.
- When affected tree is cut open
lengthwise or cross-section dark grayish-brown discolouration of wood is
seen.

IPM for Pomegranate
To know
the IPM practices for Pomegranate, click here.
Source : NIPHM, Directorate of Plant
Protection, Quarantine & Storage
38 ratings and 3
Pomegranate Pests
Pests of National Significance
Insect pests
- Anar butterfly: Deudorix (Virachola) isocrates Fabricus
(Lepidoptera: Lycanidae)
- Stem borer: Coelosterna spinator Febricius
(Coleoptera: Cerambycidae)
- Whitefly: Siphorinus phillyreae Haliday
(Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae)
- Shot hole borer: Xyleborus perforans Wollastan
(Coleoptera: Scolytidae)
- Thrips: Scirtothrips dorsalis Hood or
Rhiphiphorothrips cruentatus Hood (Thysanoptera: Thripidae)
- Fruit borers: Conogethes punctiferalis, (Lepidoptera:
Pyralidae)
Diseases
- Bacterial leaf and fruit spot: Xanthomonas axonopodies pv. punicae
(Hingorani and Singh) Vauterin et al.
- Leaf and fruit spot: Pseudocercospora punicae (Hennings)
Deighton
- Anthracnose: Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Penz.)
Sacc.
- Wilt: Fusarium oxysporum Schlecht.
Pests of Regional Significance:
Insect pests
- Pomegranate aphid: Aphis punicae Passerini (Homoptera:
Aphididae)
- Mealy bugs: Ferrisia virgata Cockerell
(Homoptera: Coccidae)
- Fruit borer: Spodoptera litura (Lepidoptera:
Noctuidae)
- Fruit sucking moth: Eudocima spp. (Lepidoptera:
Noctuidae)
Diseases
- Fruit scab: Speciloma sp.
- Leaf spot: Alternaria sp. and Cercospora sp.
- Fruit rot: Phytophthora spp., Aspergillus
foetidus Thom & Raper
IPM for Pomegranate
To know
the IPM practices for Pomegranate, click here.
Source : NIPHM, Directorate
of Plant
Protection, Quarantine & Storage
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