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Fall Armyworm Spodoptera
frugiperda J. Smith - Lepidoptera: Noctuidae |
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This armyworm appears to be indigenous to tropical parts of North
America and southern South America.
Overwintering in North America is from south Florida, south Texas and
south through Mexico. Adult armyworms
spread out by flying each year
during summer. However, the species is most damaging in
the more humid southeastern United States.
It is suspected that commerce is responsible for its invasion of
tropical Africa and warmer parts of Europe. Dr. John L. Capinera of the
University of Florida reported that the life cycle is completed in about
30 days during the summer, but 60 days in the spring and autumn, and 80 to 90
days during the winter. The number of
generations occurring in an area varies with the appearance of the flying
adults. In Minnesota and New York,
where fall armyworm moths do not appear until August, there is only a single
generation, and more generations further south. The number of eggs laid in a mass
varies from 100 to 200, and total egg production per female averages about
1500 with a maximum of over 2000. The
eggs are sometimes placed in layers, but most eggs are spread over a single
layer attached to foliage. The female
also creates a protective layer of scales between the eggs and over the egg
mass. In summer eggs will hatch in
two to three days. Larvae usually pass through six
instars. Young larvae are somewhat
green with a black head, but the head color turns to slightly orange by the
second instar. Continued growth
displays various light colored spots on a brown body. Larvae tend to conceal themselves during
the brightest time of the day.
Duration of the larval stage averages about 14 days during summer and
30 days during cooler weather (Pitre and Hogg 1983). Pupation usually is two to eight
centimeters in the ground. The larva
constructs a loose oval shaped cocoon 20 to 30 mm in length, by assembling
particles of soil with silk. If the
soil is hard, larvae may web together leaf debris and other material to form
a cocoon on the soil surface. The
pupa is reddish brown in color, and measures 14 to 18 mm in length and about
4.5 mm in width. Duration of the pupal stage is eight to nine days during
summer, but extends to 20 or 30 days during the winter in Florida. The pupal stage is vulnerable to cold
weather (Pitre and Hogg 1983). Ashley et al (1989), Luginbill (1928)
and Sparks (1979) determined that the moths have a wingspan of 32 to 40
mm. In the male moth, the forewing
generally is shaded gray and brown, with triangular white spots at the tip
and near the center of the wing. The
forewings of females have fewer markings and are a uniform grayish brown to a
fine mottling of gray and brown. The
hind wing is iridescent silver-white with a narrow dark border in both
sexes. Adults are nocturnal, and are
most active during warm, humid evenings.
After a preoviposition period of three to four days, the female
normally deposits most of her eggs during the first four to five days of
life, but some oviposition occurs for up to three weeks. Adult life may last from seven to 21 days. The host range is very wide with more
than 80 plant species known but grasses are preferred. The most frequently consumed plants are
field corn and sweet corn, sorghum, Bermuda grass, and grass weeds such as
crabgrass, Digitaria spp.
When the larval population becomes numerous defoliation tends toward
the preferred plants, following which they disperse in large numbers,
consuming nearly all vegetation in their path. Field crops are often injured, including alfalfa, barley,
Bermudagrass, buckwheat, cotton, clover, corn, oat, millet, peanut, rice,
ryegrass, sorghum, sugarbeet, Sudangrass, soybean, sugarcane, timothy,
tobacco, and wheat. Among vegetable
crops, only sweet corn is usually damaged.
Other crops sometimes injured are apple, grape, orange, papaya, peach,
strawberry and a number of flowers.
Weeds known to serve as hosts include bentgrass, Agrostis sp.; crabgrass, Digitaria spp.; Johnson grass, Sorghum halepense; morning glory, Ipomoea spp.; nutsedge, Cyperus spp.; pigweed, Amaranthus spp.; and sandspur, Cenchrus tribuloides (Marenco (1992), Pannuti et al. (2015). Young leaf tissue is most suitable for
growth and survival and larvae feeding on the corn kernels show the fastest
rate of development (Pannuti et al. 2015) Many species of parasitoids are known
to attack fall armyworm, with the most frequently reared from larvae in the
United States being Cotesia marginiventris
(Cresson) and Chelonus texanus
(Cresson) (both Hymenoptera: Braconidae), species that are also associated
with other noctuid insects. Among fly
parasitoids, the most abundant is usually Archytas
marmoratus (Townsend) (Diptera: Tachinidae). Dominant parasitoid species often vary by
year and locality (Luginbill 1928) and (Vickery 1929) and (el Heneidy 1985a
1985b). General predators that attack
many other species of caterpillars are found. Among these are various ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae);
the striped earwig, Labidura riparia
(Pallas) (Dermaptera: Labiduridae); the spined soldier bug, Podisus maculiventris (Say) (Hemiptera:
Pentatomidae); and the insidious flower bug, Orius
insidiosus (Say) (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae). Vertebrates such as birds, skunks, and
rodents also consume larvae and pupae readily. Predation may be quite important, as Pair and Gross (1984)
demonstrated 60 to 90 percent loss of armyworm pupae to predators in Georgia. Numerous pathogens, including
viruses, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, and a bacterium have been associated
naturally with fall armyworm but populations reductions do not occur. Among the most important under
consideration are the Spodoptera frugiperda nuclear polyhedrosis virus
(NPV), and the fungi Entomophaga aulicae,
Nomuraea rileyi, and Erynia radicans. Despite causing high levels of mortality
in some populations, disease typically appears too late to alleviate high
levels of defoliation. Among the
efforts to obtain other biocontrol agents to reduce the abundance of fall
armyworm larvae in corn, only Bacillus
thuringiensis presently is showing some promise, with success
dependant on having the bacillus on the foliage when the larvae first
appear. (el Heneidy 1985a
1985b).Natural strains of Bacillus
thuringiensis tend not to be very potent, but genetically modified
strains do improve control (All et al. 1996). REFERENCES: All, J. N. 1988.
Fall armyworm (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) infestations in no-tillage
cropping systems. Florida Entomologist 71:
268-272. All, J. N. , J. D. Stancil, T. B. Johnson & R. Gouger.
1996. Controlling fall
armyworm infestations in whorl stage corn with genetically modified Bacillus
thuringiensis formulations. Florida Entomologist 79: 311-317. Ashley, T. R., B. R. Wiseman, F. M. Davis & K. L.
Andrews. 1989. The fall armyworm: a bibliography. Florida Entomologist
72: 152-202. Capinera, J. L.
2001. Handbook of
Vegetable Pests. Academic Press, San
Diego. 729 pp. El-Heneidy, A.
H. 1985a. Biological aspects on Euplectrus playthypenae How.
Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), a larval parasitoid of the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda J. Smith (Lepidoptera:
Noctuidae). J. Agric. Sci. Mansoura
University 10 (4): 1535-1539, Egypt. El-Heneidy, A.
H. 1985b. Influence of host's diet on larval
parasitoids of the fall armyworm, Spodoptera
frugiperda J. Smith (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), Cotesia (Apanteles) marginiventris
Cress. (Hymenoptera : Braconidae). J. Agric. Sci. Mansoura University 10 (4): 1540-1543, Egypt. El-Heneidy, A. H.
& M. S. El-Dakroury. 1984. Survey of the lesser cotton leafworm, Spodoptera exigua Hb. associated
parasites in maize fields. Agric.
Res. Rev. 62 (1): 347-353, Egypt. El-Heneidy, A. H., P. Barbosa & P. Gross. 1988.
Influence of dietary nicotine on the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda and its
parasitoid, the ichneumonid wasp, Hyposoter
annulipes. Entomol. Exp.
Appl. 46: 227-232, USA. Foster, R. E. 1989. Strategies for protecting sweet corn ears
from damage by fall armyworms (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in southern
Florida. Florida Entomologist
72: 146-151. Hassanein, Fawzia A.
& A. H. El-Heneidy. 1984. On the parasitism of the cotton leafworm, Spodoptera littoralis (Boisd.) on
cabbage in Egypt. Bull. Soc. Ent. Egypte, Econ.
Ser., 14: 257-262. Hassanein, Fawzia A.
& A. H. El-Heneidy. 1989.
The parasitism of cotton leafworm, Spodoptera
littoralis Boisd. on Jew's mallow, Corchorus olitarius L. in Egypt. Agric. Res. Rev. 67 (1):
37-42, Egypt. Goergen, G., P. L.
Kumar, S. B. Sankung, A. Togola &
M. Tamo. 2016. First report of outbreaks of the fall
armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda (JE Smith) (Lepidoptera,
Noctuidae), a new alien invasive pest in west and central Africa. PLOS ONE, DOI:
10.137/journal.pone.0165632. Johnson, S. J. 1987.
Migration and the life history strategy of the fall armyworm, Spodoptera
frugiperda in the western hemisphere. Insect Science and its Applications
8: 543-549. Luginbill, P. 1928.
The Fall Armyworm. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Technical Bulletin
34: 91 pp. Marenco, R. J.,
R. E. Foster & C. A. Sanchez.
1992. Sweet corn response to
fall armyworm (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) damage during vegetative growth. Journal of Economic Entomology 85: 1285-1292. Mitchell, E. R.
1978. Relationship of planting
date to damage by earworms in commercial sweet corn in north central Florida. Florida Entomologist 61: 251-255. Pannuti, L. E. R., E. L. L. Baldin, T. E. Hunt & S. F.
Paula-Moraes. 2015. On-plant larval movement and feeding
behavior of fall armyworm (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) on reproductive corn
stages. Environ. Entomol. 45: 192-200 Pair, S. D., H. R. Gross Jr. 1984. Field mortality
of pupae of the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda
(J.E. Smith), by predators and a newly discovered parasitoid, Diapetimorpha
introita. Journal of
the Georgia Entomological Society 19:
22-26. Pitre, H. N. & D. B.
Hogg. 1983. Development of the fall armyworm on cotton, soybean and
corn. Journal of the Georgia
Entomological Society 18: 187-194. Roberts, P. M. & J.
N. All. 1993. Hazard for fall armyworm (Lepidoptera:
Noctuidae) infestation of maize in double-cropping systems using sustainable
agricultural practices. Florida
Entomologist 76: 276-283. Sparks, A. N. 1979.
A review of the biology of the fall armyworm. Florida Entomologist 62: 82-87. Tumlinson, J. H., E. R. Mitchell, P. E. A. Teal, R. R.
Heath & L. J. Mengelkoch. 1986.
Sex pheromone of fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda
(J. E. Smith). Journal of Chemical
Ecology 12: 1909-1926. Vickery, R. A.
1929. Studies of the fall
armyworm in the Gulf coast region of Texas. USDA Technical Bulletin 138: 63 pp. |
