Elasmopalpus lignosellus

Isas, Marcos, L., María, Pérez, P., Salvatore, Analia, Gastaminza, Gerardo, Willink, Eduardo & White, William, 2016, Impacts of crop residue on damage by sugarcane pests during the tillering phase in Argentina, Florida Entomologist 99 (1), pp. 1-5 : 3

Elasmopalpus lignosellus

At 2 locations (Simoca and Fronterita) E. lignosellus infested cane only following the “residue retained” treatment, whereas at Luisiana it infested cane in both burned and unburned plots. However, at Luisiana the level of infestation was significantly higher in burned than in unburned plots. The preference of the insect for burned plots has been suggested to be due to its attraction to smoke and the resulting dark-colored ash left on the ground following burning, as demonstrated under laboratory conditions by Viana (1981) and Magri (1999). These results are corroborated by Bennett (1962) and Salvatore et al. (2007), who observed that E. lignosellus was most injurious in fields burned before and after the harvest. Thus, the conditions generated by burning are attractive to lesser cornstalk borer moths regardless of the time when burning is performed. The lower level of E. lignosellus in unburned than in burned plots may be attributed to the absence of optimum temperature and humidity conditions, and the presence of a barrier resulting from the thick crop residue, as moths lay 99% of their eggs under or on the soil surface ( Smith et al. 1981).

An injury level of 8% observed in 2011 at “residue retained” plots in Luisiana was significantly greater than in the other years. This finding may be explained by the pre-harvest burning of a large area of sugarcane in the proximity to experimental plots. As a result, the “residue retained” plots were surrounded by a substantial area of burned sugarcane. This created a confounding effect on the field matrix; apparently, the fire in the neighboring area encouraged infestations in plots with crop residue. These findings are at variance with Schaaf (1972), who observed in Jamaica that the green-cut fields suffered no damage, even with very high populations of the pest in surrounding fields.