208 P. R. Shashank et al.
durian, citrus, papaya, castor, cardamom, ginger,
eggplant, and maize ( Sekiguchi 1974 ). Man-
agement of the pest by insecticides is not only
undesirable, but also ineffective and expensive
(Chakravarthy et al. 2012 ). Further, this insect
has more than 30 alternate host plants (Hus-
sain et al. 1995 ). Until now ten named species
of genus Conogethes have been known from
eastern Palaearctic and Indo-Australian regions
(Meyrick 1884 ). The type locality of C. punc-
tiferalis is India, so many closely allied species
may be included; however, taxonomic revision
of them has been neglected for a long time. C.
punctiferalis is in focus because of the expanding
host range, geographical occupancy, and com-
plexity involved in species identifications. As
such the pest, an internal tissue borer is difficult
to manage in fruit orchards and plantations. This
insect group is undergoing speciation, genomic
changes, or evolving into new taxon. So, molecu-
lar characterization and management aspects of
Conogethes spp. are discussed in this chapter.
Distribution and Host Range
Conogethes punctiferalis is localized to Asia,
Australia, and Papua New Guinea. In Asia, it
is found in, for instance, China (AQSIQ 2007 ),
India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Tai-
wan, Thailand, Vietnam (Gour and Sriramulu
1992 ; Hang et al. 2000; Kang et al. 2004 ). C.
punctiferalis is a polyphagous crop and fruit
pest found to infest 30 crop plants belonging
to 23 different families in India. Cardamom is
the most preferred plant followed by Hedycium
spp., Alpinia spp., and Ammomum spp. (Thya-
garaj 2003 ). Gossypium hirsutum L., Zea mays
L, Sorghum bicolor (L.)Moench spp., Psidium
guajava L., Curcuma longa L., Zingiber offici-
nale Roscoe, Citrus L., Mangifera indica L., and
Punica granatum L. served as the host plants
for this pest (Gurmey 1918 ; Tryon 1920 ; Flether
1922 ; Ballard 1924 ; Clausen 1927 ; Veitch 1931 ;
Hutson 1937 ; Narasimhaswamy 1937 ; Sloan
1945 ; Twine 1971 ; Bilapate and Talati 1977 ; Cai
and Mu 1993 ; Lu et al. 1995 ; Wu 1995 ; Konno
and Shishido 1996 ; Peter 1996 ; Park et al. 1998 ).
Theobroma cacao L. and Vitis vinifera L. were
also recorded as host plants (Mohanan and
Kumar 1976 ; Gour and Sriramulu 1992 ; Ram
et al. 1997 ), and Ricinus communis L. served as
another major host plant for this pest (Flether
1922 ; Ballard 1924 ; Pruthi 1944 ; Issac 1948 ;
Bilapate and Talati 1978 ; Hossain et al. 1995;
Sharma et al. 1995 ). Diospyros virginiana L. is
also attacked by this pest (Ono 1937 ; Tomomatsu
1995 ). C. punctiferalis has also been recorded on
yellow peach as a major pest (Konno et al. 1980 ;
Konno et al. 1981 ; Kadoi and Kaneda 1990 ; Abe
and Sanari 1992 ; He 1997 ; Kimura and Honda
1999 ) in Japan and other countries.
On Musa L., C. punctiferalis was recorded as
a pest (Jarvis 1914 ). In China, Castania mollis-
simia is attacked by the pest (Ni 1998 ), and this
pest has also been recorded to attack Malus Mill
(Kadoi and Kaneda 1990 ). Conogethes has been
recorded on Soybean (Anonymous 1944 ), Gly-
cine max (L.) Merr., Tectona grandis L., and
Ceiba pentandra (L.) Gaertn in Java (Tryon
1920 ; Kalshoven 1922 , 1928), Macadamia F.
Muell. In Queensland (Ironside and Davis 1969 ),
Pinus sp. (Shiukaji 1969 ), Crataegus L. (Sun
et al. 1992 ), and Citrus sinensis L. (Anonymous
1913a). Prunus domestica and Persea ameri-
cana (Wang and Cai 1997 ), Prunus persica var.
nectarina (Tryon 1920 ), Artocarpus heterophyl-
lus Lam. (Devasahayam et al. 1998 ) were also
damaged by this pest. Sapindus sp. was attacked
by this pest (Rao 1992 ). Quercus virginiana is
known to be attacked by this pest (Park et al.
1998 ) in temperate region.Biosystematics
Earlier workers have put Conogethes under
Pyralidae. Maes ( 1998 ) demonstrated that the
differences in structure of tympanal organ or ears
that are present at the base of abdomen called
the praecinctorium, which joins two tympanic
membranes in the Crambidae, are absent in the
Pyralidae. The latest review by Munroe and Solis,
in Kristensen ( 1999 ) retains the Crambidae fam-
ily. Genus Conogethes is a large, taxonomically