Spodoptera exigua (H ü bner, 1808)

COMMON NAME(S): Beet Army worm, Lesser Army worm, Small Mottled Willow Moth, Asparagus fern caterpillar, African army worm, Beet Army worm Moth, Berseem army worm, Lesser cottonworm, PIgweed caterpillar, Lucerne army worm, Onion army worm or Sugarbeet army worm.

SYNONYM(S): Laphygma antipodea Warren, 1914b; Laphygma caradrinoides Walker, 1856c; Caradrina flavimaculata Harvey, 1876; Noctua fulgens Geyer, 1832; Caradrina junceti Zeller, 1847b; Douzdrina protector De Laever, 1985; Caradrina pygmaea Rambur, 1834; Caradrina sebghana Austaut, 1880; Caradrina venosa Butler, 1880b.

DISTRIBUTION: Algeria, Ascension Island, Bahrain, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroun, Canary Islands, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Dahomey, Egypt, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Libya, Madagascar, Madeira, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Réunion, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Ascencion and Tristan da Cunha, Senegal, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

LOCALITY IN ZAMBIA: Lusaka, Chilanga and Kafue, in Lusaka Province; Mumbwa and Kabwe, in Central Province; Portion of the Southern Africa biodiversity conservation four corners area in Zambia in Northwestern, Western and Southern Provinces of the country.

LARVAL HOSTPLANT(S): A polyphagous species whose larval food plants include beans and peas, sugar and table beets, celery, cole crops, lettuce, potato, tomato, cotton, cereals, oilseeds, tobacco, many flowers, and a multitude of weed species. The larvae feed on the foliage of plants and can completely defoliate small ones. Smaller larvae devour the parenchyma of leaves, so that all that remains is the thin epidermis and veins. Larger larvae tend to burrow holes through thick areas of plants. For example, they will burrow straight into a head of lettuce rather than neatly removing tissue from one particular leaf. This renders the produce unmarketable. They attack buds and new growth on plants, preventing flowers from opening, new leaves from sprouting, and vegetables from developing. As the smaller larvae move about, they leave strands of silk behind, netting the leaves with a silvery film. The species is a major pest of maize, cereals and dicotyledonous vegetable crops in the Four Corners area of southern Africa [i.e. Border areas of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe].

SOURCES: Catalogue of Life 2017; De Prins & De Prins 2022; Gardiner 2004; Haggis 1986.