Occurrence of fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda (J E Smith) as earhead caterpillar on finger millet

Fall Armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda considered as a polyphagous and potential pest of cereals. Recently it was found infesting on earheads of finger millet at ZARS, V C Farm, Mandya, Karnataka, India. Screening of 230 finger millet genotypes during Kharif-2018 and 2019 revealed that, fist earhead shape genotypes recorded maximum level of incidence i.e. 0.15 to 0.50 larvae/earhead, whereas, compact earhead shape recorded moderate level of incidence 0.06 to 0.37 larvae/earhead and minimum level on semi-compact earhead shape genotypes i.e. 0.01 to 0.20 larvae/earhead. However, droopy/lax and open earhead genotypes were free from infestation completely. During various stages of earhead development, A maximum level of incidence was recorded during doughing stage (0.23 larvae/ earhead), followed by milky stage (0.16 larvae/earhead) and maturity stage (0.07 larvae/earhead). However, at flowering stage, there was no incidence.