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June 2017. A request to identify insects eating the top surface of leaves of a mango, and recommendations for treatment. It’s been occurring over the last few months and damaging many leaves. It is seen on nearby crepe myrtle, too.
One suggestion was that they were the larvae of a phytophagus ladybird beetle, but that was thought to be incorrect. It was more likely to be the larvae of a Lymantriidae moth, gregarious at young caterpillar stages, but dispersing later. Among the species of the family. The member has experience of some Euproctis sp., but this species is different. They resemble though a species the member had seen in Indonesia.
They probably have urticating hairs that cause a skin reaction when handled; many species of the family have such hairs. It should be possible to identify the species at the caterpillar stage. Does anyone else in Pestnet know of yellow Lymantriid caterpillars? Can it be Arctornis riguata Snellen? Unfortunately, I do not know what their larvae look like, but this species has been reported from mango in Indonesia.
A Pestnet moderator, Banpot Napompeth, wrote the following:
“The common lymantriid feeding on mango leaves in Thailand is Euproctis fraterna (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae) whose hairy caterpillar are relatively dark in color. In the photo, which is not that clear, the larvae are somewhat yellow. They resembles the larvae of the yellow hairy caterpillar, Calliteara(= Dasychira) horsfieldii (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae) which is polyphagous. If David could manage to collect and rear the larvae to obtain adult moths, the identification will be more definite”.
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