First Record of the Fall Armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) on Sorghum Plants, A new invasive pest in Upper Egypt

Mohamed, Hend O.; El-Heneidy, A. H.; Dahi, Hassan F.; Awad, Azza A.

doi:10.21608/eajbsa.2022.214719

First Record of the Fall Armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) on Sorghum Plants, A new invasive pest in Upper Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Biological Control Research Department, Plant Protection Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Giza, Egypt

² Cotton Leafworm Research Department, Plant Protection Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Giza, Egypt

³ Department of Zoology and Entomology, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, Assiut 71516, Egypt

10.21608/eajbsa.2022.214719

Abstract

Fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is a new invasive destructive insect pest; causing a huge threat to the food security and livelihoods of millions' smallholder farmers worldwide. Recently, it was first recorded on maize fields in 2019 at Aswan Governorate, Upper Egypt and spread to the north so fast to Luxor, Qena, and Sohag Governorates. Later, it was recorded invading the maize crop at Assuit Governorate in 2021. Afterwards, the first appearance of FAW damage on sorghum crops was recorded on the 6^th of August. Identification was done by the morphological characteristics as well as laboratory rearing of the pest for confirmation. Besides, the damage symptoms were observed by naked eyes as transparent elongated patches, irregular holes-like windows on the leaves, holes in stems and sawdust-like larval feces. Moreover, larvae have distinctive morphological marks of inverted "white Y-shape" on the head, 4 large black spots arranged in a square on the 8-segment and 4 small dots on the dorsal surface of all other segments. This is the first record of FAW infestation on sorghum plants in Assuit Governorate, Upper Egypt. This information and prediction could be helpful to restrict its further spread to different cultivated crops with proper management.

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