Rice skipper: Pelopidas mathias

Symptom of damage:

• Edges of the leaves are fastened with webbing
• Backward rolling of leaves
• Larva feeds from margin to inwards

Identification of Pest:

• Eggs: are white or pale yellow and spherical. They are pearl-like in appearance.
• Larva: Larva is green, grown up larva is robust, yellowish green with four white dorsal stripes, smooth with a constricted neck and red ‘V’ mark on the distinct head
• Pupa: Light green with tapering ends
• Adult: Dark brown skipper butterfly with two white spots on the wings.

Management:

• Parasitoids and predators usually control skippers in nature in the field.
• Eggs of rice skippers are parasitized by small wasps. The orb-web spiders feed on the adults during flight.
• A nuclear polyhedrosis virus also infects skipper larvae.
• Drain the water and spray chlorpyriphos 20 EC 500 ml/ac.