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Citrus Butterfly (Papilio demoleus Linnaeus) Bioiogy and Management: A Review

Abstract

The lemon butterfly is one of the economically important pests whose larval forms cause serious damage by devouring large quantity of foliage of Rutaceae family with Special preference towards both wild and cultivated species of citrus during the later stages of their development. The genus Papilio is widely distributed all over the world. Different species of citrus butterfly occurs in different parts of the world. However, Papilio demoleus Linnaeus (PDL) is the most prevalent species and was found in greater parts of Asia, Farmosa and Japan etc. The biology and developmental periods are mainly dependant on the climate, location and plant species on which it is feeding. The larval population density will be high during October to December months and July to December is the most favourable period of its activity in general. PDL was able to survive during the winter even though temperatures dropped below 0°C. The total life period varied between 21-50 days and with 3-9 generations per year depending on the weather at various locations. For managing this pest the different biological agents include the yellow wasp (Polistes hebreus F.), preying mantis (Creobrator gemmatus) and spiders etc. The pupae were parasitised by Pteromalus puparum and eggs by Trichogramma, Telenomus species. Distatrix (=Apanteles) papailionis (Vireck) is a potential braconid larval parasitiod causing up to 73% egg and larval parasitism, the egg and PDL and P. polytes species in India. The biocompatible, biodegradable bio-pesticides like BTB, BTK, NSKE, azadirachtin, diofenolan, methonine etc., which interfere with the pests morphological and physiological aspects like feeding, moulting, cellular construction and cell immune system without affecting the natural environmental balance were clearly reviewed in this paper.

G Sarada, K Gopal, KT Venkata Ramana, L Mukunda Lakshmi and T Nagalakshmi

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