Jasmine Bud Caterpillar
Hedylepta indicata
📖 Description
Hedylepta indicata, the Jasmine Bud Caterpillar, is a specialist pyralid moth that has emerged as a key biotic constraint on India’s jasmine industry. India is the world’s largest producer and consumer of jasmine flowers — the industry is concentrated in Tamil Nadu (Madurai, Dindigul, Virudhunagar), Karnataka (Bangalore Rural, Kolar, Tumkur), Andhra Pradesh (Guntur, Prakasam), and Maharashtra (Ahmednagar, Pune). Jasmine flowers are used in Hindu worship, in the traditional Indian ‘gajra’ (flower garland worn by women), and increasingly in perfumery and essential-oil extraction. The combination of high flower value (peak-season prices reach ₹500–800/kg) and daily harvest logistics makes the jasmine industry uniquely vulnerable to bud-feeding pests — even a single caterpillar inside a bud destroys the entire market value of that flower. The female moth lays eggs singly on the unopened jasmine bud, and the emerging larva bores directly into the bud, feeding on the reproductive organs and binding the petals together with silk. The damage is largely internal and the bore-hole is small, so infested buds are often not detected at harvest — they reach the market, fail to open, and are rejected at the wholesale level. The pest has 8–10 overlapping generations per year in tropical India and is active year-round, with peak infestation during the March–June peak flowering season. IPM packages developed by TNAU Coimbatore and IIHR Bangalore emphasise daily bud picking (which doubles as pest monitoring), Btk applications at 7-day intervals, and light-trap-based adult monitoring as the core management tactics.
⚠️ Symptoms to watch for
- Bore-holes in unopened flower buds — the diagnostic symptom
- buds fail to open and either dry on the plant or drop prematurely
- webbing visible on the bud surface binding petals together
- frass pushed out of the bore-hole.
- Heavy infestation in jasmine plantations in Tamil Nadu (Madurai, Dindigul), Karnataka (Bangalore Rural, Kolar), Andhra Pradesh (Guntur), and Maharashtra (Ahmednagar, Pune) can destroy 40–70 % of the flower crop, with the losses particularly severe during the peak flowering season (March–June) when flower prices are highest.
🩹 Treatment
- Cultural: pick and destroy infested buds daily before larvae complete development and pupate — the single most effective cultural practice.
- Mechanical: install light traps at 2/ha to monitor adult activity
- use pheromone traps where available.
- Biological: spray Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki (Btk) at 1 g/L at 7-day intervals from bud initiation
- release Trichogramma chilonis at 50,000/ha for egg parasitism.
- Chemical: spray indoxacarb 14.5 SC @ 0.5 ml/L or emamectin benzoate 5 SG @ 0.4 g/L at 7-day intervals during the bud stage — apply as a high-volume spray directed at the buds.
🌿 Organic treatments
- Spray neem oil (Azadirachta indica) at 3 % emulsion at 7-day intervals from bud initiation
- apply Beauveria bassiana at 5 g/L on buds
- use light traps at 2/ha for adult monitoring
- hand-pick infested buds daily and destroy them
- intercrop with non-host species (vegetables, pulses) to disrupt adult oviposition.
🧪 Chemical treatments
- Indoxacarb 14.5 SC @ 0.5 ml/L, Emamectin benzoate 5 SG @ 0.4 g/L, Spinosad 45 SC @ 0.3 ml/L, Chlorantraniliprole 18.5 SC @ 0.3 ml/L.
- Apply as a high-volume spray directed at buds.
- Pre-harvest interval 7 days
- jasmine flowers are harvested daily so observe strict pre-harvest intervals.
🛡️ Prevention
- Pick and destroy infested buds daily — this is the single most important preventive measure in small-to-medium plantings
- install light traps at 2/ha to monitor adult activity and time sprays precisely
- maintain plantation sanitation — remove leaf litter and fallen buds that serve as pupation sites
- avoid excessive nitrogen fertilisation that promotes continuous tender flushes attractive to ovipositing females
- in large plantations, adopt a coordinated spray programme based on light-trap monitoring
- remove wild Jasminum and Nyctanthes hosts around plantation margins.
🪴 Affected plants
- Jasmine (Jasminum sambac, J. grandiflorum, J. auriculatum) — primary host
- also reported on other Jasminum species and occasionally on olive (Olea europaea) and Nyctanthes.
🦋 Natural predators
- Trichogramma chilonis (egg parasitoid — 25–40 % field parasitism in unsprayed plantations)
- Apanteles spp. (larval braconid parasitoids)
- predatory pentatomid bugs (Eocanthecona furcellata)
- lacewing larvae (Chrysoperla zastrowi)
- spiders (Thomisidae, Salticidae)
- and predatory ants (Oecophylla smaragdina) on the bud surface.
🌱 Host plants
- Jasminum sambac (jasmine — primary)
- Jasminum grandiflorum (J. officinale var. grandiflorum)
- Jasminum auriculatum
- Olea europaea (olive — minor)
- Nyctanthes arbor-tristis (night-flowering jasmine — minor).
🔄 Lifecycle
- Adult female lays 60–150 eggs singly on unopened flower buds.
- Egg stage 3–5 days.
- Larva bores into the bud and feeds internally for 10–16 days through five instars.
- Pupation occurs in a folded leaf or in soil; pupal stage 7–12 days.
- Adult longevity 7–14 days.
- Total lifecycle 22–35 days.
- Eight to ten overlapping generations per year in tropical India.
📅 Season
- Active year-round in tropical India; peak infestation March–June during the peak flowering season when temperatures are 28–35 °C and humidity is moderate.
- Population persists at lower levels through the monsoon and post-monsoon.
🔎 Appearance
- Adult is a small yellowish-brown pyralid moth with darker brown markings on the forewings — a characteristic pattern of two dark spots and a wavy sub-marginal line.
- Wings are held tent-like over the body at rest.
- Larva is a slender pale-green caterpillar with a dark head capsule and several faint longitudinal stripes — the colour matches the jasmine bud, providing excellent camouflage.
- Pupa is dark brown, found inside a folded leaf or in the soil.
💥 Damage level
- Severe
🔁 Reproduction rate
- Fast
🗺️ Geographic regions
- Indian Subcontinent (Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala)
- South Asia
- parts of Southeast Asia.
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