A NEW STEM BORER INFESTING TASAR SILKWORM FOOD PLANTS

Abstract

The tropical tasar silk is produced by the tasar silkworm, Antherea mylitta Drury. Since the rearing is conducted on the trees of Arjun, Termilalia arjuna, Asan, T.tomentosa, Sal, Shorea robusta etc. the qualitative or quantitative production of the silk or seed directly dependent upon the quality or amount of foliage available and utilized for tasar silkworm rearing. With the infestation of the food
plant by any pests, the production of foliage and thereby, production of tasar silk and quality seed are liable to be affected.
The round headed stem borers and the flat headed stem borer are most common. These borers affect Arjun (T. arjuna), Asan (T. tomentosa) and Sal (Shorea robusta). Most of the borers attacking tasar food plants belonging to family Cerambycidae and Buprestidae of order Coleoptera. The stem borer infesting T. arjuna reported now is belonging to a new species Sphenoptera aerosa. The new species belongs to the family Buprestidae and the order Coleoptera. Various parameters were studied like symptoms of infestation, survival of plants and damage type. The infestation of this new species ranged from 19 to 31 % in different blocks of plantation.