Breakthrough in mass breeding predator butterfly

Single caterpillar can feed on 2,500 mealy bug eggs:

In a relief for cultivators troubled by mealy bug pests, an Indian university has done breakthrough research enabling mass breeding of a ‘predator’ butterfly to help destroy the plant sucking bugs that destroy economically important crops.

“Indian cultivators for years have been battling the threat by six species of mealy bugs, which reproduce rapidly and feed on crops like coffee, cocoa, grapes, fig guava, mango, sugarcane, mulberry, vegetable crops and several ornamental plants, causing huge crop loss,” Dr M G Venkatesha, Department of Zoology, Bangalore University, told PTI.

Mealy bugs attack flowers and fruits of crops. A single mealy bug lays 500-100 eggs and has a 30 day life-cycle. The menace is estimated to cost a loss of $750 million in US and several millions in India, he said.

Pesticides were not effective as their bodies have a kind of wax-coated finish which did not allow it to settle on them. The only method used so far to control mealybugs was deployment of biological control agents like predatory ladybird beetles and wasp parasites,which had to be imported.

The Hindu