BIOLOGY OF EARIAS BIPLAGA WLK (LEP NOCTUIDAE) ON THEOBROMA CACAO IN WESTERN NIGERIA

Earias biplaga Wlk. has been recorded to attack Theobroma cacao from the Ivory Coast to the Congo (Léopoldville) and also in San Thomé and is the only species of the genus to do so in Africa. Attack is most serious on seedlings in the field as the apical buds are destroyed. Eggs are laid on the stem mainly, especially on leaf bracts. The first half of the larval period is passed within the apical bud and the last half in feeding on unhardened flush leaves, or, in their absence, in burrowing down the stem below the apex or in devouring the epidermis of the upper stem. The length of the larval and pupal periods is inversely related to the mean maximum temperature; they are shortest in the dry season and longest in the wet season. Differences between the sexes exist in the wing coloration, and in the shape of the labial palps, the last segment of which is much longer in the female than in the male. The dry-season form, which has the forewings suffused with golden brown in the female and with yellow-green in the male, instead of the wet-season green, occurs from January to March in the region of Ibadan, Western Nigeria. The adults are largely nocturnal and they are attracted to ultra-violet light. Adults lived longer in the laboratory on a diet of sucrose in water (males, on average, 17 days and females, 28 days) than on water alone or without either. A mean of 95 eggs per female was recorded from sucrose-fed adults in the laboratory and the greatest number of eggs laid by a single female was 461. The peak period of oviposition was the fourth to fifth day after mating (fifth to sixth after emergence). A method of rearing E. biplaga in the laboratory is described. Six alternative host-plants in Nigeria, all in the Malvales, are listed, and one, Hibiscus esculentus, is a locally important food crop. Nine Hymenopterous parasites were found to attack E. biplaga in Western Nigeria, the most important being Trichogramma luteum (Gir.) which attacks the eggs, destroying over 90 per cent, of them at certain times of the year. All the other parasites, with one possible exception, appeared to attack only the larval stage of the host. © 1969, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.