Very little is know about the biology of this species.

Some samples of pupae collected around 20 April yielded moths on around 10 May at 23 degrees C. - so about 3 weeks.

In the plantation, in late May and early June, moths were found fairly easily resting on the trunks of trees. We collected some moths to try and get them to lay eggs but were unsuccessful.

In late May, we also looked for larvae still feeding but have not found any - (but have since found some in mid July.)

I suspect that the practice of pruning when there are a lot of larvae on the pruned branches may be facilitating an early pupation as the leaves wither on the pruned branches while some larvae manage to crawl back up the truck to concentrate on the remaining foliage.

Perhaps if the branches were left on the trees a bit longer natural enemies would have more time to attack the larvae before pupation and therefore reduce the level of the next generation of moths.

Beware of pruning off the fourth tier (to leave three) if there are many damaged leaves through the tree as you will be effectively reducing the tree to two or less working tiers which will set the tree back and may enable the caterpillar to further “get ahead” and defoliate the entire tree.

So there may be optimum times and bad times for pruning when this pest is present in the plantation. More work needs to done on this. A good subject for a Phd.

By mid June there is now virtually no healthy foliage on the trees so that feeding sites and an ability for the larvae to develop is also very limited - this may provide a break in the life-cycle of the moth.

The major natural enemies are likely to be:

birds, spiders, parasitoid wasps (Cotesia sp), parasitoid Tachanid flies and spined predatory shield bugs.