{"id":58528,"date":"2025-08-07T12:29:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T06:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=58528"},"modified":"2025-08-07T13:26:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T07:56:15","slug":"teak-defoliator-moth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/teak-defoliator-moth\/","title":{"rendered":"Teak Defoliator Moth"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Teak Defoliator Moth Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, the Kerala Forest Research Institute has identified and mass-produced Hyblaea puera Nucleopolyhedrosis Virus (HpNPV) which offers eco-friendly alternative to chemical pesticides and prevents massive defoliation in teak caused by teak defoliator moth (Hyblaea puera).<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Teak Defoliator Moth<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: disc;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>moth and cryptic species<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and a well-known pest which affects teak trees.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It also attacks an <\/span><b>alternative host plant, Avicennia marina,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a <\/span><b>prominent mangrove tree species <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">abundant along the west coast of India, causing severe and extensive defoliation of Mangroves.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The teak defoliator Hyblaea puera was first recognized as a pest of teak in 1898 in the <\/span><b>Konni Forest Division in Kerala State of India.<\/b><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Distribution:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is native to <\/span><b>South Asia and South-east Asia and mainly <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">occurs in forests across southern Asia from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, through Thailand and the rest of south-east Asia to New Guinea, and north Queensland in Australia.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The outbreaks of this pest are a regular annual phenomenon in teak plantations.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Impact:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It causes significant <\/span><b>economic losses on timber production<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from teak plantations during their seasonal outbreaks.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>How does it Affect Teak Tree?<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Larvae cause damage and attack commences with onset of monsoon rain.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When the larvae attack, the tree spends its energy regenerating leaves instead of growing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Nature of damage:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> These moths defoliate trees and eat entire leaves and leave midrib.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>What is Hyblaea Puera Nucleopolyhedrosis Virus?<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>potential biocontrol agent<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the teak defoliator Hyblaea puera.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is considered to be the most promising biocontrol agent of this pest according to laboratory and field studies.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It causes <\/span><b>lethal infection in the pest larvae<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and prevents widespread defoliation of teak trees.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It multiplies at least a trillion times inside a single larva. When the body breaks open, it releases huge quantities of inoculum.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even if the infection is sub-lethal, the virus stays in the insect, gets passed on to the next generation, and proves lethal then.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/kerala\/game-changer-virus-from-kerala-forest-research-institute-to-help-save-teak-plantations\/article69900551.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TH<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Teak defoliator Moth is a moth and cryptic species and a well-known pest which affects teak trees. Read more about Teak Defoliator Moth, Distribution, Impact, Latest News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":58538,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,2060,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-58528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-prelims-pointers","9":"tag-teak-defoliator-moth","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}