''Spodoptera mauritia'', the lawn armyworm or paddy swarming caterpillar, is a

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

of the family

Noctuidae The Noctuidae, commonly known as owlet moths, cutworms or armyworms, are a family (biology), family of moths. Taxonomically, they are considered the most controversial family in the superfamily Noctuoidea because many of the clades are constantly ...

. The species was first described by

Jean Baptiste Boisduval Jean Baptiste Alphonse Déchauffour de Boisduval (24 June 1799 – 30 December 1879) was a French lepidopterist, botanist, and physician. He was one of the most celebrated lepidopterists of France, and was the co-founder of the Société ento ...

in 1833. Able to eat many types of food, it is a major pest throughout the world.

Distribution

It is widespread from the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

, Malaya to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and widespread in the Pacific Islands, including the Solomons,

New Hebrides New Hebrides, officially the New Hebrides Condominium () and named after the Hebrides in Scotland, was the colonial name for the island group in the South Pacific Ocean that is now Vanuatu. Native people had inhabited the islands for three th ...

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

, the

Society Islands The Society Islands ( , officially ; ) are an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean that includes the major islands of Tahiti, Mo'orea, Moorea, Raiatea, Bora Bora and Huahine. Politically, they are part of French Polynesia, an overseas country ...

Austral Islands The Austral Islands ( officially ''Archipel des Australes;'' ) are the southernmost group of islands in French Polynesia, an overseas country of France, overseas country of the France, French Republic in the Oceania, South Pacific. Geographicall ...

Marquesas The Marquesas Islands ( ; or ' or ' ; Marquesan: ' ( North Marquesan) and ' ( South Marquesan), both meaning "the land of men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific ...

and the

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is an island country west of the International Date Line and north of the equator in the Micronesia region of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The territory consists of 29 c ...

Description

The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

is about 40 mm. It is dark grey brown with a rusty tinge on its body. The abdomen is fuscous. Forewings with sub-basal, antemedial and postmedial double waved lines indistinct. The orbicular small and ochreous, whereas reniform blackish. Submarginal line whitish and irregularly waved. There is a white patch often can be seen between orbicular and reniform and a dark patch on the central marginal area. Hindwings opalescent and semi-

hyaline A hyaline substance is one with a glassy appearance. The word is derived from , and . Histopathology Hyaline cartilage is named after its glassy appearance on fresh gross pathology. On light microscopy of H&E stained slides, the extracellula ...

white, with a dark marginal line.

Ecology

The larvae feed on various grasses, including rice, wheat, '' Cynodon'', ''

Pennisetum clandestinum ''Cenchrus'' is a widespread genus of plants in the grass family, native to tropical and warm temperate regions of the world. Its species are native to many countries in Asia, Africa, Australia, the Americas, and various oceanic islands. Comm ...

'', ''

Sorghum bicolor ''Sorghum bicolor'', commonly called sorghum () and also known as great millet, broomcorn, guinea corn, durra, imphee, jowar, or milo, is a species in the grass genus ''Sorghum'' cultivated for its grain. The grain is used as food by humans, ...

'', ''

Oryza sativa ''Oryza sativa'', having the common name Asian cultivated rice, is the much more common of the two rice species cultivated as a cereal, the other species being ''Oryza glaberrima, O. glaberrima'', African rice. It was History of rice cultivation ...

'', and trees such as ''

Casuarina equisetifolia ''Casuarina equisetifolia'', commonly known as coastal she-oak, horsetail she-oak, ironwood, beach sheoak, beach casuarina, whistling tree or Australian pine is a species of flowering plant in the family Casuarinaceae and is native to Australia, ...

''. They are considered one of the major international agricultural pests on crops and pastures. Unlike other insects, armyworm caterpillars of their sixth

instar An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'' 'form, likeness') is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, which occurs between each moult (''ecdysis'') until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to ...

do not excrete

uric acid Uric acid is a heterocyclic compound of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen with the Chemical formula, formula C5H4N4O3. It forms ions and salts known as urates and acid urates, such as ammonium acid urate. Uric acid is a product of the meta ...

, instead they excrete

urea Urea, also called carbamide (because it is a diamide of carbonic acid), is an organic compound with chemical formula . This amide has two Amine, amino groups (–) joined by a carbonyl functional group (–C(=O)–). It is thus the simplest am ...

as nitrogenous wastes. ''Spodoptera mauritia'' has been found in the

feces Feces (also known as faeces American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, or fæces; : faex) are the solid or semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the small intestine, and has been broken down by bacteria in the ...

of the Greater tube-nosed bat.

Damage and control

Plants attacked by caterpillars have skeletonized leaves, shot holes, and dieback stems. Commonly the entire paddy crop dies within few days due to swarming attack. Hand picking and other mechanical methods are used to reduce infection. Adults can be eliminated by introducing

bolas spider A bolas spider is a member of the orb-weaver spider (family Araneidae) that, instead of spinning a typical Spider web, orb web, hunts by using one or more sticky "capture blobs" on the end of a Spider silk, silk line, known as a "bolas". By swing ...

s to the fields. This spider has the ability to spray a pheromone similar to the female moth, to attract male moths. The nematode '' Steinernema carpocapsae'' and usage of viruses like Nucleopolyhedrovirus are also effective. Moths traps like wing traps and unitraps can also used to collect adults.

Legacy

*In 1969, small outbreaks of less than 200 acres have been reported in the

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

region of

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

, but in 6,000 square miles of outbreak was recorded from

Sarawak Sarawak ( , ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. It is the largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Sarawak is located in East Malaysia in northwest Borneo, and is ...

. These attacks vanished 20% of total rice production in Malaysia. *In 1981, paddy nurseries near marshy areas were severely affected by armyworm in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. This induced transplanting programs throughout the country and re-sowing of seedlings into the field highly susceptible to the attack. *In 1983, nursery beds were devastated by the caterpillars, reduced the total rice production. *In Sri Lanka, the heavy outbreaks were recorded twice from the country, first in 1904 and then in 1920, where

Jaffna Jaffna (, ; , ) is the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka, Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a Jaffna Peninsula, peninsula of the same name. With a population o ...

paddy cultivations were destroyed by the caterpillars. *An outbreak has been reported in Dibrugarh district of

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

during Kharif, 2012 *The outbreak during Kharif, 2016 in Assam has been considered as one of the most devastating outbreaks in the state of Assam, India with an infestation in more than 34,650 ha area of rice across 28 districts.

Subspecies

*''S. m. mauritia'' (Indian Ocean) *''S. m. acronyctoides'' Guenée, 1852 (Oriental tropics, Australia, Pacific tropics, Japan)

References

External links

Species info
*
Rice swarming caterpillar (''Spodoptera mauritia'') and its management strategiesObservations on the armyworm ''Spodoptera mauritia acronyctoides'' Gn. (Lep., Noctuidae) in Sarawak (Malaysian Borneo)
{{Taxonbar , from=Q7578799 Spodoptera Moths of the Comoros Moths of Africa Moths of Fiji Moths of Asia Moths of Japan Moths of Madagascar Moths of Mauritius Moths of New Zealand Moths of the Middle East Moths of Réunion Moths of Seychelles Moths described in 1833 Taxa named by Jean Baptiste Boisduval Insect pests of millets