POTATO TUBER MOTH :

Phthorimaea operculella

AISWARYA M K
2018-41-507
 POTATO TUBER MOTH
• Common name: Potato tuber
moth/Potato tuber worm/ Tobacco split
worm
• Scientific name: Phthorimaea
operculella
• Family: Gelechiidae
• Order: Lepidoptera
• Hosts: Potato(main), Tobacco, Egg
plant, Tomato and other solanaceous
crops (alternative)
DISTRIBUTION
• P. operculella originated in the tropical mountainous regions of
South America, the potato’s center of origin. Today it has become
a global pest with distribution reported in more than 90 countries.
• Almost all tropical and subtropical potato growing regions in
Africa and Asia, also in North, Central and South America.
• It is believed that this pest was introduced to India from Italy
about 80 years back along with imported potato seeds. The first
place of arrival of its pest was Bombay but now it is spread over
to the whole country
 DESCRIPTION
• The potato tuber moth has a body length of
about 10mm and a wingspan of about 12mm.
• Adult moths have a narrow, light brown body
with greyish-brown wings containing a variety
of small dark spots.
• The moth contains two sets of wings, both
having frayed edges.
• Females are distinguished from males by
having a black “X” pattern on their forewings
when their wings are closed.
 LIFE HISTORY
• Egg: Laid singly on the ventral surface
of foliage and exposed tubers.
• They are small, spherical, translucent
and range in colour from white or
yellowish to light brown.
• Larva: Yellow coloured caterpillar with
dark brown head.
• The fully grown caterpillar is 11mm
long. The larval period lasts for 9-33
days.
• Pupa: Pupation occurs within a cocoon
among the trash, clods of the earth in the
field and takes 6-26 days.
• Adult: Small narrow winged moth,
greyish brown forewings and hind wings
are dirty white.
- Wings are fringed and wingspan is about
15mm. The moths are very short-lived.
- One generation takes some 3-4 weeks,
and there can be up to 12 generation per
year
 LIFE CYCLE

3-
7 da
a ys ys
-8d
ADULT 5

EGGS

LARVAE
ys
11

a
-1

d
2

-20
da

15
ys

PUPAE
 DAMAGE
• PTM attacks solanaceous crops with potato
being favoured.
• Foliar injury is due to the larvae
(tubeworm) mining into leaflets, causing
them to form transparent blisters, then
move into stem tissue causing death.
• Tubers are marred when larvae reach tubers
by two major means.
• Upon hatching from eggs laid on leaves,
larvae can drop to the ground and burrow
through cracks in the soil to a tuber,
entering it through the eye.
• Another common way is that the
female PTM lays its eggs directly
on exposed tubers at or near the
eye.
• When the larvae hatch, they just
enter the tuber through the eye
making a slender tunnel along the
surface or deep into the tuber.
• A tunnel can be detected by
mounds of worm excrement (frass)
appearing black at the entrance
(pictured). Tunnels do not heal and
are entryways for diseases most
notably soft rot and dry rot.
• Presence of even one larva is sufficient
to spoil and destroy a tuber.
• Rapidly moving caterpillars penetrate
the tubers, form galleries coated with
silken threads and eject frass outside
the tuber.
• Fungi, bacteria, and mites can develop
inside the tunnels made by the larvae,
which causes the tubers to rot and emit
an unpleasant smell.
 MANAGEMENT
Cultural control
Field Management
• Weeds and volunteer plants can act as
alternate hosts for potato tuberworms,
and should be eliminated from fields and
surrounding areas.
• Deep planting and good coverage of
potato seeds with soil more than 2 inches
during hilling helps protect damage by
adults and larvae.
• Discard infested tuber seeds; only use
healthy seed tubers for planting.
• Vines should not be used for covering
tubers as they wilt after some time and
larvae and moths can penetrate the cover
to reach underlying tubers.
• Harvest soon after crop maturity.
• Moth populations are maintained in plant
and tuber debris in the field in the
absence of main crop. Therefore, timely
field cleanliness is an important
preventive measure.
• Cull piles should be destroyed to reduce
overwintering stages of potato
tuberworm.
• Avoid leaving harvested tubers overnight
in the field as these potatoes could act as
egg laying sites for potato tuber moth.
• Cover the upper surface of potato tubers
with the branches of Lantana and
Eupatorium to repel the ovipositing moth
in the godown
• Adopt intercropping with chillies, onion
or peas.
Soil management and irrigation
• Irrigation is the most effective
preventative method under dry
conditions.
• Enough irrigation should be provided
to not allow cracks to develop deeper
than two inches in the soil.
• It is recommended that fields should
be irrigated after vine desiccation to
avoid cracks in the soil and that
harvest of tubers occurs as soon as the
skin sets.
Mechanical control
- Use of Pheromone
traps(20/ha), funnel traps, water
traps, and sticky traps.
Biological control Chelonus blackburnii
- Natural enemies of potato tuber
moth can be used as a part of an IPM
program.
- Release egg larval parasitoid:
Chelonus blackburnii @30,000/ha
twice at 40 and 70 day after planting.
- Spray Bacillus thuringiensis @1
kg/ha at 10 days interval.
- Spray NSKE @5% to manage foliar
damage.
- The parasitoids, Copidosoma
koehleri and Bracon gelechiiae have
been used with some success in
South America and Australia,
respectively.
Chemical control
- Spray quinalphos 25 EC @2ml/lit of water to manage foliar
damage.
- Spraying the crop with fenitrothion (0.05%), carbaryl (0.1%),
acephate (0.5 kg a.i./ha), and monocrotophos(0.60kga.i./ha)is
effective for controlling PTM.
 REFERENCE

- A.S.Atwal, G.S.Dhaliwal. Agricultural pests of South Asia

and their management. Kalyani Publishers.

- Dennis S.Hill.Agricultural insect pests of the tropics and

their control. Cambridge University press

- Chandel2020_Article_ThePotatoTuberMothPhthorimaea

- https://agritech.tnau.ac.in/crop_protection/potato/
potato_2.html
THANK YOU!