Susumia exigua (Butler)

Swezey, O. H., 1946, Lepidoptera, Geometridae, Arctiidae, Agrotidae, and Pyralidae of Guam, Insects of Guam II, Honolulu, Hawaii: Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 189, pp. 163-185 : 180

24. Susumia exigua (Butler) .

Samea exigua Butler, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. V, 4: 453, 1879.

Susumia exigua, Marumo, Oyo-Dobuts. Zasshi 2: 41, fig., 1930; Kawata, Icon. Insectorum Japonicorum, 1391, fig., 1932.

Inarajan , May 14; Piti , July 12, Sept. 1; Agat , Sept. 20, Swezey.

This rice leafroller was described from Japan, and I have not found it recorded elsewhere. No doubt it has been present in Guam for some time, as I find mention of a rice pest in the November 1933 number of The Guam Recorder which is apparently this insect: "The yearly invasion of the rice leaf folder upon young rice in the seed beds has made its appearance. This pest is harmful only while in the larva stage, injuring the plant by folding the leaf edges and fastening them together with a mucilaginous secretion. With this protection it feeds, but the principal damage is done by preventing the leaves from performing their proper· functions, thus retarding growth. This year the invasion of the folder is in much greater proportions than in previous. years." I saw similar work in rice seed beds, and also on maturing rice, but without serious results. I reared moths from the larvae found and presume it is the same pest as described in the quotation. Some of the larvae were parasitized by Apanteles guamensis Fullaway.

This moth is very similar to the preceding species which is a leafroller on grasses. Another similar species recorded on rice in the Philippines and India has the name Cnaphalocrocis medinalis (Guenee) .