Bark eating caterpillar:
Indarbela tetraonis Moore (Arbelidae: Lepidoptera)
Pest appearance:
Larva appears blackish making tunnels on the stem and branches.
Symptoms of damage:
- The caterpillars make a small residential hole on the wood normally where the branches fork and from there make superficial galleries inside which they feed on the tissues.
- The presence of winding galleries on the bark made of powdered bark, faecal pellets and silk webbed together indicates this pest attack.
- Feeding damage of cambial tissues of small branches by this larva results in drying up of those branches.
Damage by bark eating caterpillar