Report of the invasive fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and its natural enemies on maize and other crops from Andhra Pradesh, India

Fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) was first noticed on maize crop at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Anakapalle, Visakhapatanam, Andhra Pradesh. Severe damage by S. frugiperda was recorded in several villages of Vizianagaram, Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam districts of Andhra Pradesh state during August and September, 2018. The incidence of fall armyworm ranging from 5 to 100 per cent was observed in all maize growing areas. Grown up larvae damaging maize whorls were collected from four locations and reared in the laboratory till adult stage. Species were identified based on morphological characters as S. frugiperda. Furthermore, molecular identification of the pest was done and Gen bank accession numbers were obtained for the pest from four locations of Andhra Pradesh (MH 822831, MH 822832, MH 822833 and MH 822834) and DNA barcodes were generated. Though the pest caused serious damage to maize during August - September, 2018, it was also found to cause 20-30% damage on sorghum, ragi, bajra during October and November, 2019. Furthermore, the pest was found to feed on young sugarcane crop (30 to 45 days old) and caused infestation around 5% during April, 2019 at Anakapalle, Visakhapatnam district, Samalkota, East Godavari district and Vuyyur, Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. Egg parasitoids, Trichogramma sp. and Telenomus sp were found to parasitize the pest on maize and T. chilonis was found to parasitize eggs of the pest in sugarcane.