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Striped stem borer (SSB), Chilo suppressalis (Walker)
Distribution: This borer species has been reported from plains of India, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Kerala.
Description: There is large amount of variation in the adult morphology of this species. In general, the adults are dirty white to yellow-brown, variably sprinkled with grey-brown scales; Hind wing white to yellow brownish. The head and thorax of male are brown and abdomen is pale in colour. Larvae are dull yellow coloured with ochreous head and prothoracic shield. They have 5 distinct stripes (one median, two sub dorsal and two lateral) and 2 distinct sub lateral stripes, on abdomen.
No information on biology in India is available. However it has been reported from many temperate regions like Japan and China where it is a major pest (Heinrichs, 1994). Female moth may lay 100-550 eggs in batches of 50-80. Eggs are naked and scale like, pale to dark yellow, laid in masses formed of overlapping rows on leaf sheaths. The larvae live gregariously during the first three instars. Larval period is 20-48 days over 5-6 larval instars.
Host Plants: Chilo suppressalis is mainly a pest of rice, but it has been recorded feeding on maize, Scirpus gressus and Panicum crusgalli. Other hosts include sorghum, Panicum miliaceum, Echinochloa spp., Phragmites communis, Saccharum sp., Typha latifolia, water oats (Zizania latifolia, Z. caduciflora and Zizania aquatic).
DRR Technical Bulletin No. 59/2011, Rice stem borers in India: species composition and distribution