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Chickpea gram pod borer (Helicoverpa armigera)

The gram pod borer, Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner), is the single most damaging insect pest of chickpea (Cicer arietinum) in India. ICAR-IIPR Kanpur and ICRISAT estimate annual chickpea losses attributable to H. armigera at over Rs 3,000 crore, with un-protected fields losing 40-90% of pod yield in outbreak years. The pest is polyphagous (chickpea, pigeonpea, cotton, tomato, sorghum, sunflower) and the same pheromone-trap surveillance underpins management across host crops.

Identification and life cycle

  • Adult: medium-sized moth, forewing yellow-brown in male, olive-grey in female, with a dark kidney-shaped spot and a wingspan of 30-40 mm; nocturnal
  • Eggs: pearly-white, ribbed, laid singly on tender shoots, flower buds and young pods; 200-1000 per female
  • Larvae: pass through six instars; colour variable (green, brown, pink) with longitudinal stripes; mature larva 35-40 mm long; bores into pods leaving its body half-exposed
  • Pupa: in soil, 3-7 cm deep, lasting 10-15 days in rabi
  • Generation time: 30-50 days; 4-5 overlapping generations per year on chickpea-pigeonpea-cotton cycle

Diagnostic field signs are circular bore-holes on pods, frass at hole margins, and partially-fed grain when pods are split.

Damage and economic impact

Larvae feed first on foliage and flower buds, then on developing seed inside pods. A single larva can damage 30-40 pods over its development. Economic threshold for chickpea is one larva per metre row or 5 moths per pheromone trap per night for 3 consecutive nights. Major outbreak tracts are MP (Vidisha, Sehore, Indore), Maharashtra (Latur, Akola), Karnataka (Kalaburagi, Vijayapura), AP (Kurnool, Anantapur) and Rajasthan (Bundi, Kota). Insecticide resistance to synthetic pyrethroids and organophosphates was documented across these zones in the 1990s-2000s, driving the shift to diamides and biocontrol-based IPM.

Management

The ICAR-IIPR recommended IPM package combines:

  • Host-plant resistance: chickpea genotypes with moderate resistance — ICCV 7, ICCV 10, Vijay, Vishal; resistance is partial and must be combined with other tactics
  • Cultural: timely October-November sowing in north and central India; chickpea + linseed (4:1) or chickpea + mustard (6:2) intercrop reduces oviposition by 30-50%; deep summer ploughing exposes pupae
  • Monitoring: pheromone traps at 5/ha from flower-bud stage; ETL 5 moths/trap/night
  • Biological: HaNPV (Helicoverpa nucleopolyhedrovirus) at 250 LE/ha, two sprays at first flowering and pod-set; Trichogramma chilonis @ 1.5 lakh egg-parasitoids/ha; Nomuraea rileyi and Beauveria bassiana in humid pockets; bird perches at 50/ha
  • Botanical: 5% NSKE (neem-seed kernel extract) at flower-bud stage
  • Chemical (when ETL crossed): chlorantraniliprole 18.5 SC at 150 ml/ha, flubendiamide 480 SC at 100 ml/ha, emamectin benzoate 5 SG at 220 g/ha or spinosad 45 SC at 150 ml/ha; rotate molecules to delay resistance; avoid pyrethroids on chickpea

See also: Bengalgram crop, JG-11 desi chickpea, KAK-2 kabuli, Chickpea fusarium wilt, Pod borer in pulses (overview).

Sources

  1. Helicoverpa armigera on chickpea — IPM module. ICAR-Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur.
  2. Helicoverpa management in chickpea. ICRISAT, Patancheru.
  3. Helicoverpa armigera factsheet. CABI Plantwise.