Potato moth

Scientific Name: Phthorimaea operculella
Type of pest: Pests of potato
Order: — Lepidoptera
Family: — Gelechiidae

Quarantine pest in the regions of the southern steppe of Ukraine.
It damages potatoes, eggplants, tomatoes and other pastels.
Butterfly with size 12 - 16 mm, front wings broad-lanceolate, brown-gray, with a darker inner margin, yellow scales; Rear wings with a groove on the outer edge of males at the anterior edge of the brush of long hairs reaching the middle of the wing.
Egg size 0,8 mm, oval, pearl matting.
A curworm with a length of 8-10 mm, yellowish-pink or gray-green with a longitudinal strip in the middle of the back and small dark shields on the body; chest black
Doll - 5 - 6.5 mm, brown, with small bristles at the end of the abdomen, is in a silky silver-gray cocoon. They hibernate in the natural environment, cutworm of the ages and puppets in cocoons.
In potato storage at a temperature of 15 ° C and above, the development of the pest continues on potato tubers and in the winter. In spring, in case of planting tubers with eggs laid on them or populated by cutworm or pupae, the pest again falls into the field.
Departure of butterflies in the south of Ukraine takes place in May.
Butterflies fly in the night, from west to east, and 1 - 2 hours from the east.
One day after pairing, the females lay eggs, placing them from the bottom on the leaves, on the stems, in the soil, in the nude potato tubers in one or small batches.
For 2 - 16 days, one female is able to postpone up to 300 eggs.
Depending on the temperature conditions, after 3 - 15 days from the eggs, the cutworm are revived, they burst under the epidermis of the leaf, the young shoots or the skin of the young tuber, where they feed, making mines and pots filled with excrement in them.
After 11 - 14 days catering caterpillars are piled. After 7-12 days from the puppets fly butterflies, lay eggs and give rise to the development of a new generation. In the south of Ukraine, potato moth in the natural environment develops in over five generations that are superimposed on one another; therefore, imago is observed almost continuously, from May to November, for the highest numbers in September-October.
Protection measures. Fumigation of potato tubers before planting. Destruction of pasture weeds, planting of shrubs, harvesting to the drying of the peduncle and immediate removal from the field, destruction of plant remains and deep plowing of the soil; if possible - the abandonment of the summer planting of potatoes. In the case of flying butterflies and damage to plants - spraying with insecticides.