New Horizons in Insect Science Towards Sustainable Pest Management

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Molecular Characterization and Management of Shoot and Fruit Borer Conogethes ... 209


complex taxon belonging to superfamily Pyral-
oidea, family Crambidae, subfamily Pyraustinae.
The genus for a long time was under confu-
sion because the taxonomy was based on wing
venation. Since the publication of Sir George
Hampson’s Fauna volumes in 1896 in the “Fauna
of British India” series, considerable changes in
the taxonomy of this group have taken place. The
species punctiferalis was placed in genus Cono-
gethes by Meyrick ( 1884 ), although moved to
Dichocrocis after that. It has been placed back
in Conogethes by Munroe (Munroe 1989 ). Shaf-
fer et al. ( 1996 ) placed it in Conogethes as a
revised combination. The Natural History Mu-
seum (London) card index is yet to be updated
(10/10/2012), so we considered GlobIZ (Global
Information System on Pyralidae) as a better
source. Hence, retention of Conogethes for the
crambid moth is now followed by entomolo-
gists all over the world, excepting few in China.
Hampson in his “Fauna of British India” report-
ed 20 species of Dichocrocis mainly based on
wing venation and arrangements of black spots
on wings. Subsequently, few preliminary stud-
ies have been done by lepidopterists in India and
abroad on this genus. Five species of Dichocrocis
were identified, namely, D. evaxalis Walker, D.
punctiferalis Walker, D. nigrilnealis Walker, D.
plutusalis Walker, and D. surusalis Walker from
light trap collections in Kerala, India (Mathew
and Menon 1984 ).
Azam and Ali ( 1965 ) studied the morphology
of larva of D. punctiferalis with special reference
to chaetotaxy collected from castor bean ( Ricinus
communis L.). The genitalial morphology of D.
punctiferalis and D. plutusalis was studied and
main modification in the morphology of valvae,
uncus, saccus, phallus, bursae, and ductus in these
species were elucidated (Mathew and Menon
1989 ). Until now, ten named species of genus
Conogethes Meyrick ( 1884 ) have been known
from eastern Palaearctic and Indo-Australian re-
gions (Shaffer et al. 1996 ). Inoue and Yamanaka
( 2006 ) redescribed C. punctiferalis along with
two new ( C. parvipunctalis and C. pinicolalis)
closely allied species from eastern Palaearctic
and Oriental regions. In mid-1980s, Chakravar-
thy (unpublished observations) found differences


in morphology of Conogethes moths reared on
castor and cardamom ( Elettaria cardamomum
Maton) in the Western Ghats of Karnataka, South
India. The male genitalia also differed between
the two. The Conogethes larvae reared on castor
bean and cardamom required two different mass-
rearing techniques (Chakravarthy et al. 1991 ).
Nowadays DNA bar coding is a major tool for
identification of species. Molecular taxonomy
is giving an additive support for species identi-
fication with traditional taxonomy. Seventeen
species (Table 1 ) from six countries, namely,
Australia, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, China,
Indonesia, and Nepal are bar coded for genus
Conogethes and deposited in the Barcode of Life
Data Systems (BOLD) till today.
Unfortunately, there is no single species from
India that is bar coded. There is a need for tax-
onomic revision of this genus with the help of
molecular taxonomy. The species listed in Hamp-
son’s fauna differ from those that are bar coded.
Recently, Shashank ( 2012 ) bar coded Cono-
gethes moths reared on castor and cardamom
from different geographical locations of India. In
many classifications, the family Crambidae has
been treated as a subfamily of the Pyralidae or
snout-moths. Currently, Crambidae is treated as a
full-fledged family.

In Japan

In Japan biosystematics of Japanese Cono-
gethes spp. with special reference to host plant
preference and reproductive isolation was done
(Honda 2013 ). In genus Conogethes, C. punc-
tiferalis (CPU) and C. pinicolalis (CPI) are the
most well-known pest species of agricultural and
forest plants in Japan. The C. punctiferalis was
called as the fruit-feeding type (FFT) of the yel-
low peach moth in order to distinguish from other
feeding group, the Pinaceae-feeding type of C.
punctiferalis, which was registered as C. pinico-
lalis in 2006.
Morphology of male and female adults be-
tween these species is very slightly different, but
some morphometric comparisons were possible
in order to segregate both species. Although the C.
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