The document discusses the major cotton pest Earias insulana and Earias vitella, detailing their identification, life cycle, and economic impact on cotton crops. It highlights symptoms of damage caused by the pests, such as drying terminal shoots and rotting bolls, and outlines control measures including cultural practices and insecticide applications. Effective management strategies involve clean cultivation, early sowing, resistant varieties, and promoting natural predators.

1. Ehtisham Hussain
BAGF15E258
University College Of Agriculture,
University Of Sargodha, Sargodha
In the name of Allah, the most Merciful and the most Beneficent

2. Technical Name:
Earias insulana
Earias vitella
(Noctuidae; Lepidoptera)
Pest category: Borer
Major pest of Cotton

3. Identification:
 Eggs- green in colour
 Larvae- E. insulana in greenish white colour
with black spots and E. vitella in brownish colour
 Adult moths- E. insulana have forewings
completely green and E. vitella have longitudinal
green band in the middle of straw coloured wing.

4. Earias vitella
Egg Larva
PupaeAdult

5. Pupae Adult
Earias insulana

6. Life Cycle of Spotted Bollworm:
Egg
Adult Larva
Pupae
egg hatches in
one week
grows in 12-14
days
18-21 days
pupal period
Lays 200-400
eggs on leaves
In winter, the life cycle is greatly prolonged

7. Damage:
It is a chewing insect pest of cotton that causes
great economic loss to cotton crops.
Symptoms of damage
 Drying and drooping of terminal shoots during
pre-flowering stage
 Shedding of squares and young bolls
 Flaring up bracts during square and young boll
formation
 Holes on bolls and rotting of bolls

8. Drying- terminal
shoots
Bore holes and rotting
Flare square

9. Control:
Pest can be controlled by following method
 Clean cultivation and destruction of alternate
host plants.
 Early sowing of crops.
 Use of resistant varieties.
 Natural enemies of the pest (predators and
parastoids) should be promoted in the field.
 Application of cypermethrin EC 200-250
ml/acre, spinisad SC 80 ml/acre and emamectin
benzoate EC 75 ml/acre.