PESTS OF CASTOR :: Major Pests :: Tussock Caterpiller

6.  Tussock caterpillar: Notolophus posticus  (Lymantriidae: Lepidoptera)

Distribution and status: India

Host range: Castor

Bionomics: Male is winged and female being apterous, sluggish cling to the cocoon after emergence. Males are attracted to the females at dusk. Females lay 350 cream coloured subspherical eggs in mass on the cocoon itself.

Egg period 7 days and  larval period 16 to 19 days. Larva has brown head with a pair of long pencils of hair pointing forward from prothorax, tuft of yellowish hairs laterally on first two abdominal segment and dorsally on first four abdominal segments and long brown hairs dorsally from 8th abdominal segment. It pupates in transparent silken cocoon inside leaf roll.