PESTS OF PULSES - RED GRAM & CHICKPEA :: Major Pests :: Grass Blue Butterfly

3. Grass blue butterfly: Euchrysops cnejus (Lycaenidae: Lepidoptera)

Distribution and status:  Throughout India. Regular pest

Host range:  Blackgram, peas, redgram and lablab.

Damage symptoms: Buds, flowers and young pods with boreholes and presence of slug like caterpillar.

Bionomics: The adult butterfly is blue, medium sized with 5 black spots in the hind wings and two black spots in the inner margin.  It lays 60-200 eggs singly on stem, pod, and leaf petioles.  They hatch in 2-10 days.

The pale green or yellow larva measures about 13 mm in length with a red line and short black hairs on the body.  It feeds on flowers; flower stalks and enters the pod.  The entry hole on the pod is plugged with excreta.  The larval period is 10-21 days with four instars.  It pupates in soil or between fallen leaves and debris of the plant for a period of 5-12 days.

Management for Blue butterfly

• Discourage dense or close planting.
• Avoid early or late sowing.
• Dig soil regularly during the period of infestation to kill larvae and pupae.
• Pick and destroy the larvae, pupae & adults.  
•  Release  egg parasitoid Trichogramma sp.
• Conserve larval parasitoids Aploymia sp., Hyperencyrtus lycaenephila, Listrodromus crassipes.
• Chemicalcontrol measures are the same as redgram pod borer




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