Codling Moth - True or False?

 There is an insect called the False Codling Moth - true or false?

True!

An insect that goes by this name is now at the centre of an an international trade dispute between South Africa and the European Union. The False Codling Moth (henceforth FCM) infects a range of fruits, especially citrus and is perfectly adapted itself to Global Warming (unlike the original Codling Moth) and a range of climatic zones.  It is the fear of FCM infestation that has recently driven the EU to put up stricter measures to prevent its spread into Europe.

About 3.2 million cartons of citrus worth about 605 million rand ($36 million) is now rotting in European ports because of a change in rules that happened even while the fruit containers were on their way to the northern hemisphere. In face of a growing apprehension that its own horticulture may be affected by this moth, EU wants all citrus consignments from South Africa to go through a freeze treatment - an expensive add-on in the supply chain that makes the exports more expensive, and perhaps economically unviable for the African farmers. 

This is not very different from the dilemma faced by Indian mango exporters. Different  countries demand different post-harvest treatments before they allow imports of mangos - hot water treatment, vapour heat treatment or irradiation. Japan, UK and EU countries do not allow import of mango without vapour heat treatment - again an expensive process for small farmers. 

So ultimately, the irony - countries that produces that produce the best variety of citrus or mangos are unable to export it to the very markets that pay the best rates.

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REFERENCES & LINKS

* SA oranges to EU  - https://www.euractiv.com/section/agriculture-food/news/tonnes-of-fruit-stranded-in-eu-south-africa-battle-of-oranges/ 

* Constraints in mango exports from India -  http://indianecologicalsociety.com/society/wp-content/themes/ecology/volume_pdfs/1651904681.pdf

* https://www.sun.ac.za/english/faculty/agri/conservation-ecology/ipm/Documents/FCM%20fact%20sheet%20ENG.pdf

* https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/managing-fruit-fly-in-mango/article7130611.ece

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_codling_moth

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codling_moth

Yellowjackets

A bee or not a bee?

For the past two weeks I have been intrigued by this bright yellow coloured 'bee' seen here diving deep into a rose. Unlike a regular bee however it did not limit itself to flowers. 

They could be seen just about everywhere in Kabul - perched on Thuja leaves, hovering over lawn grass, and even locked in a mortal combat with a black ant!

Turns out that this is not a bee at all. According to Wiki, this is a species of social wasps called the Yellowjackets - "They can be identified by their distinctive markings, their occurrence only in colonies, and a characteristic, rapid, side-to-side flight pattern prior to landing."

Wonder why they outnumber the regular honeybees...

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LINKS

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowjacket

A Moth Reappears

"What a lovely butterfly!" said our neighbour Goel-ji, pointing to this large moth sitting on the park wall.

Set against red-sandstone chips in the early morning sunlight, this was indeed a stunningly beautiful creature. Two pairs of translucent 'eyes' set in iridescent yellow, underlined in red and white, stared back at you blankly. No wonder it caught the attention of Goel-ji who knows everything there is to know about the sugar-trade and Hindustani Classical Music, but usually cared little for the difference between butterflies and moths. Yet the sight moved him enough to insist that I take a photo and share it with him on WhatsApp - "This is the first time I am noticing something like this in our park!"

As I continued my way, I wondered what is this moth called. It looked vary familiar but I could not recall its name. Was it the Atlas Moth? Or was it a new entrant into our monsoon-soaked neighbourhood?

Later, I kicked myself for not remembering. No, it was not the Atlas Moth but a species that had been attracted to the Arjuna trees (Terminalia arjuna) in hordes three years ago. It was the Tussar Silk Moth!

Three years ago the caterpillars of this moth (Antheraea mylitta) had made a dramatic appearance on the young Arjuna trees. Hundreds of them had suddenly appeared on the trees, clinging to every available branch, leaving them almost bereft of leaves, and then growing into enormous creatures built like bright green trailer trucks fitted with psychedelic lights.

A few days later many of them had fallen off the crowded trees, and lay helplessly on the grass - too large to crawl, and too numerous - or too distasteful -  to be eaten by birds and cats. The ones that remained on the trees soon turned into lovely oval cocoons and hung there like thousands of fruit, swaying in the breeze. We had seen only a few moths that emerged from these cocoons. Some were larger, and looked haggard after getting drenched in the monsoon rains but none of them had a bright golden sheen like this one.

The Arjuna trees are now 20 feet higher and far less vulnerable than they were three years ago. How may eggs are these Tussar Moths going to lay this year?  How many caterpillars are going to fall off the swaying branches?  Let's see.

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REFERENCES & LINKS

Paper - Checklist of Moths in Delhi (2017) - https://www.journalcra.com/sites/default/files/issue-pdf/24350.pdf

Tussar Silk - Utsavpedia - https://www.utsavpedia.com/textiles/tussar-silk-the-story-of-wild-silk/

Tussar Silk Moth -  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antheraea_mylitta

Life-cycle - http://www.notesonzoology.com/sericulture/life-cycle-of-various-silk-moths/323

What's that bug? -  https://www.whatsthatbug.com/2007/10/10/antheraea-yamamai-from-india-or-perhaps-antheraea-mylitta/

Flikr - Moths of India - https://www.flickr.com/groups/mothsofindia/

Life in the Paddies

Nostalgia drove me to the erstwhile paddy fields of Thrikodithanam in Kerala.

A few decades ago a river of fluroscent green rice saplings stretched as far as a child's eye could see. Neat fields separated by narrow strips of slushy mud, clear streams teeming with Manatthu-kanni (eyes-to-the-sky) fishes and the smell of overturned earth.

All that has disappeared now. As in much of Kerala, paddy fields have been abandoned, filled-in, turned into tiny parcels of land and sold as residential plots. A little patch that now remains of my grandfather's paddy fields is now home to hundreds of unfamiliar insects.

A ten minute walk along the edges of this wild patch revealed these new inhabitants. What are they called?

Insect Season

It has been an unusual combination of summer and monsoon this year. The dry heat lasted for a lot longer in May-June, and then, after a few showers, most of the rainfall happened in August-September.

Last year, at the Sector-105 park in Noida,  all the Arjuna trees were loaded with plump, green, Tussar Silkworms. This year there were none. Instead, we had some other unusual guests.

(All ids by Shaku @ Florida-U)

Parthenium beetle, Zygogramma bicolorata, Family Chrysomelidae.

Common Silverline, Cigaritis (Spindasis) vulcanus, Family Lycaenidae
Note the "false head" at the back of the wings - excellent defense mechanism..

Common Silverline (top view)

Flower beetle, Mylabris pustulata .  Family Meloidae (blister beetles or oil beetles, because they secrete a pungent, oily substance when attacked, that might cause blisters in predators body; feed on flowers, so also called flower beetles ).

Most likely, Small Cabbage White, Pieris rapae, definitely Family Pieridae. These are really delicate, and lose their, already pale, wing coloration very fast, its usually difficult to find a fresh and intact specimen.

Treehopper, (possibly, Centrotus sp.), Family Membracidae.  Fascinating little insects, also called cow bugs (horns, obviously), or thorn bugs. 

Indian or Asian Honey bee, Apis cerana indica

Common emigrant, Catopsilila pomona (Family Pieridae) 

Lemon or Lime swallowtail, Papilio demoleus. 
This one seems to have lost part of its wings to a predator!  The bottom part of the wings have red or orange, eye-shaped spots that often serve as a defense mechanism, to fool predators.  So the predator attacks from the tail end of the butterfly, and gets only the wings, while the butterfly can escape!  This is one of the papiolionid butterflies that does not have a tail-like extension to its wings (that give the family its name - swallowtails).

Dunking Insects

Immediately after the first monsoon rains a birdbath on the terrace was caked with flies. Which are these insects that dunk and drown themselves? What could be the evolutionary advantage of such a mass suicide?

Tsukuba Summer Bugs

The missing ids are finally here! - many thanks to Shaku (Univ. of Georgia)

The wasp is an ichneumonid, very common family that includes a lot of parasitic wasps that parasitize other insects and are therefore very important in biological control of insect pests.  The sub-family may be Banchinae 

 This is a bug (Hemiptera).  I'm pretty sure this is the kudzu bug.  It was recently discovered here in Georgia and is the current sensation. http://www.caes.uga.edu/departments/ent/upmp/documents/KudzuBugCircular991.pdf

Longhorned beetle or Longicorn beetle.  I think it is Batocera lineolata or White-striped Longhorn Beetle = shirosuji-kamikiri (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaxAmNfF7AY). Can also be yellow striped http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Batocera_lineolata  Batocera is a genus of Cerambycid beetles that are pests on several tree crops. Batocera rufomaculata is the mango stem borer common in India.  Also refer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longhorn_beetle for info on Longicorn beetles in general.

Immature Hemipterans of Fulgoridae or Membracidae. (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha).

 That looks like a sphingid caterpillar, but I cant identify it from the picture.  The anal horn is what identifies it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphingidae

Snout Moth.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lasiocampidae .  Looks like Euthrix sp. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philudoria_potatoria  

Again immature Hemipterans of Fulgoridae or Membracidae. (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha).

 A kind of zipper spider.  Argiope species.  You can see the start of the zipper pattern on its web.  Species may be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argiope_aetherea.. could be a subspecies of that.

.

 Looks like a slug caterpillar, but not sure...

Moth Fly.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moth_fly

Green Slant-faced Grasshopper.  Genus is most probably Acrida.. http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_grasshoppers/Longheaded.htm These may be mistaken for green katydids which are long horned grasshoppers because they are so slender, but they are actually short horned.

Asian Longhorned Beetle - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_long-horned_beetle Another current sensation in the US. 

A Hymenopteran http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hymenoptera .  The most I can say from this picture is Suborder Apocrita.

Bugged

Delhi has been swarming with this insect for the past week. At night, enormous clouds of them collect around mercury-vapor lamps (white light), leaving the yellow sodium-vapor lamps almost bare.

Usually we see an explosion of insect population after the first rains. But the last time it rained was two months ago and with the onset of winter, the air is now dry and dusty. In such conditions it is rather unusual to see huge swarms of insects enveloping the streetlights.

These are not the usual winged termites that flap around clumsily until they get rid of their wings, or become lizard feed. They are much smaller(~3mm), brownish in color, built like condensed houseflies with a strong preference for white incandescent lights. They are usually zipping around blindly, entering open mouths (bland), eyes (no sting) and when at rest, they prefer to dangle up-side-down.

What could this be? Shaku was unsure, "..it looks like one of the Heteroptera belonging to the leafhopper or plant hopper group (like cicadellids or fulgorids) sorry I cant be more precise, but I need a closer look..."

The answer came, rather surprisingly, from a front-pages of Hindustan Times (24th Oct., 2008). An article by Satyan Mohapatra, "Mutant Insects Over Delhi", claimed that this was the Brown Plant Hopper.

It quoted Dr. T.P.Rajendran (ADG-Plant Protection, IARI), "This year untimely rains began a chain reaction that led the Hopper population to explode...the rains caused an increase in pest population, which made the farmers use increasing amounts to insecticides like Carbaryl, which ended up killing off all the natural predators of the Hopper like spiders and frogs."

Apparently a mutant strain developed resistance to carbaryl, and the insect population exploded. They were having a great time until the farmers of Rhotak and Panipat harvested the rice crop. Suddenly, they had nothing else to do but to ride the next breeze to Delhi.

Will we now see an explosion of spider and lizard population in the weeks to come?

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Reference / Links:

• Mutant insects over Delhi, Satyen Mohapatra, Hindustan Times, 24th October 2008