Whether Leucinodes orbonalis Guenée is becoming a serious problem to brinjal seedlings in nursery

Incidences of brinjal shoot and fruit borer, Leucinodes orbonalis were observed in brinjal seedlings at nursery in and around Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh during August – September 2015. Maximum of 37.16% seedlings were damaged in nursery. The affected seedlings drooped down, wilted and finally die prompting the farmers to re-sow the crop. Critical observation revealed that gravid female prefers to lay eggs at the junction of two leaves and the seedlings with minimum stem thickness of 1.65 mm with an average of 1.78±0.13 mm diameter were preferred for egg laying. Histological studies had shown that on damaged stem, larvae fed the cells from pith (parenchyma), vascular bundles (xylem, vascular cambium, phloem and bundle sheath), bundle caps and endodermal cells leaving only the epidermal and hypodermal cells. Prophylactic spraying(s) in the nursery must be adopted before attaining this preferred minimum stem thickness along with other management practices in endemic areas to get rid of from this dreaded pest of brinjal.