The Lepidopterous Stalk Borers associated with Gramineae in Uganda
Authors: Ingram W. E. 
Published: July 2009

The Lepidopterous stalk borers that occur in Uganda in association with the Gramineae were studied there during 1954–1956 by collecting on all likely host-plants at two centres and by a country-wide survey in which stalk-borer damage in cereal crops was qualitatively assessed at five-mile intervals along the routes followed, and the species of borer present in such crops and, where possible, in nearby wild host-plants were determined. The commonest Noctuids were Busseola fusca (Fuller), B. segeta Bowden, Sesamia calamistis Hmps. and S. poephaga Tanas & Bowden. All these attacked sorghum, maize, sugar-cane and (except the last) finger millet (Eleusine coracana.); so also did S. botanephaga Tarns & Bowden, but only near swamps, in which it infested sedges (Cyperus spp.) and reeds (Typha australis), from which the other species were virtually absent. Only S. calamistis and S. botanephaga attacked rice. All attacked Pennisetum purpureum, Sorghum vertictlliflorum, Vossia cuspidata, and (except S. botanephaga) Panicum maximum, and also other wild grasses.

B. fusca is widely distributed but most abundant in areas of intensive cultivation, where crop residues abound in which the resting larvae can survive the dry season. B. segeta is the most frequent species in Pennisetum purpureum and Panicum maximum, which are extremely common over most of the country, but is rare in cereal crops. S. calamistis (to which earlier records of S. cretica (Led.) and S. vuteria (Stoll) must be attributed) is not numerous but occurs in every district except Karamoja, where it cannot survive the dry season; and S. poephaga is known only from northern and eastern districts and is unimportant.

Chilo zonellus (Swinh.), which may be a recent introduction, occurs in all the cultivated host-plants and most of the wild ones except Cyperus and Typha; it has not been found at altitudes above 4,000 ft. in the west or 5,000 ft. in the north and east, but elsewhere it is the prevalent borer and can cause severe damage in dry years and on out-of-season crops. It was the only species besides B. fusca found on bulrush millet (Pennisetum typhoides), the tough stem of which resists attack. On the western border, Eldana saccharina Wlk. attacks sorghum, maize and sugar-cane at high altitudes, and Maliarpha separatella Rag. attacks rice. A fourth Pyralid, Pectinigeria sp., occurs on maize.

When small plots of host-plants were grown in a matrix of sorghum, and also in a swamp, and the whole sampled at harvest for borer infestation, all the cultivated hosts and many of the wild ones suffered some attack, the percentage of stems bored varying from 10 (finger millet) to 89 (sorghum) amongst the former, and reaching 34 (Panicum maximum), 40 (Sorghum verticilliflorum) and 50 (Pennisetum purpureum) amongst the latter. Immature stages of C. zonellus and B. fusca greatly outnumbered those of Sesamia, especially in the more heavily infested host-plants.

Notes are given on the life-histories of the commoner species of borer and on their habits in the field. In the laboratory, the lengths of the life-cycles, in days, were 68–75 (B. fusca), 65–78 (B. segeta), 46–58 (S. calamistis) and 46–53 (C. zonellus). In the dry season, the larvae of B. fusca entered a resting stage, which prolonged the life-cycle to 200 days; such larvae were found only in living or dry stems of crop plants. C. zonellus and Sesamia spp. bred continuously, in the dry season the former being found chiefly in trash, stubble and volunteer tillers of sorghum, the latter in these and living stems of grasses.

Of the principal cereal crops in Uganda, sorghum is the most widespread. The main crop, sown after the longer of the two dry seasons, suffers little borer attack; second crops are more severely affected, but plants with thick stems or numerous tillers nevertheless yield heavily. Finger millet is the staple food crop in the north and west; borer damage is negligible and restricted to small patches of “dead-hearts” caused by larvae from single egg-masses of S. calamistis. Maize is grown on a large scale in the districts bordering Lake Victoria and in the highlands; borer attack is usually very late and, where rainfall is adequate, appears not to afiect yields.

Apanteles sesamiae Cam. and another, unidentified, Braconid probably control S. calamistis, but on the other stalk borers the incidence of parasites, which are listed, is low. Destruction of all crop residues and wild species of Sorghum around cultivated areas would considerably reduce borer attack at the beginning of the growing season, but chemical control was only partly effective and did not increase the yield.