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Grahame Jackson
Sydney NSW, Australia
Identification request
2018-05-08T18:00:00.0000000Z
   2
Cocoa pest identification: Cote d'Ivoire
Dear PestNet members,

This pest seems to be new and is causing much damage to cocoa trees in an area in Côte d’Ivoire. Looking for ID. Any help is much appreciated. 

Best regards,
Wouter Vanhove

 Laboratory of Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture and Ethnobotany
Department of Plants and Crops
Faculty of Bioscience Engineering
Ghent University
Belgium

Posted on user's behalf

Cocoa
Caterpillars
Cote_d_Ivoire
1
3620

Responses

Grahame Jackson
   0
2018-06-23T00:56:32.1892733Z
Hi Wouter, 

It looks like there are two different species in the photos provided, the larva in the close-up image lacks the pale dorsal patch which is evident on all of the larvae on the pod in the other image. Is it possible to get more images of the species that is damaging the pod?

The larva in the close-up image is probably in the Erebidae though, in one of the subfamilies that used to be contained in the noctuid subfamily “Catocalinae”. 

Regards, 

Dave Britton
Department of Agriculture and Water Resources
Queensland
Australia

Cocoa
Erebidae
Catocalinae
Caterpillar_damage