Sesamia inferens (Walker)

Taxonomic position

Insecta: Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea: Noctuidae: Hadeninae

Common names

Pink stem borer, pink borer

Habitat / Crop(s) damaged

Maize, sorghum, ragi, rice, sugarcane, wild grasses.

Typical symptoms of damage in rice are dead heart in young plants (drying of central tiller) and white ear (chaffy, white, erect ear head) in older plants. In sorghum and maize, the infested plants exhibit the characteristic "dead heart" symptom, with the central shoot drying up, red mining in the midribs, windows in the leaves, shot holes on the whorl leaves and boreholes at the base of the stem. Larvae pinkish.

Pest status

A polyphagous pest on several graminaceous crops, occasionally serious on ragi, maize and sorghum.

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