Life cycle

Adults fly at night, placing their eggs (about 500/female), singly or in small groups, all over the cotton plant, preferring the buds and flowers. The larvae penetrate into buds, flowers, squares and especially bolls wherein they develop in a few weeks, boring an exit hole at maturation. In summer development is continuous, a generation requiring about 4-7 weeks. Towards autumn the larvae enter a prepupal diapause, remaining in this state during winter, either hidden in the soil, within unpicked bolls or inside stored seeds. Some larvae have a prolonged (for as long as 30 months) diapause. They pupate in the spring, the emerging adults initiating the first generation, most of whose members die due to the lack of suitable host plants. The surviving females lay eggs on adventitious or bi-annual cotton, and their descendants form the second, more harmful pest generation.

Pest Identification

Adult is a small moth having wingspan of 10-15 mm, dark brown, with irregular black markings on the fore wing. Hind wing silvery gray with no distinct markings. Both wings are elongated, fringed with long hairs posterior and the tip of hind wing is sharply pointed. In the younger crop larvae bore into tender squares and feed within resulting into drying of the terminal shoots. Later flower buds and bolls are attacked. Infested flower buds fail to open up completely due to webbing by the larva, giving the appearance of a typical rosette bloom. Larvae damage the bolls by tunnelling into them, destroying the pulp and lint. Infested bolls open prematurely permitting fungal infection.