Biology of Hyposidra infixaria Walk. (Lepidoptera: Geometridae), a resurgent looper pest of tea

In recent years a new looper pest, Hyposidra infixaria Walk. (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) has been found to cause heavy infestation on tea plants in different tea growing areas of West Bengal. This species has been recorded for the first time in India. The eggs were laid in batches of 12–403 under the cracks and crevices of bark of large perennial trees. The larvae passed through six instars. The incubation, larval, prepupal and pupal periods were 6.5, 24.65, 1.1 and 9.03 days respectively. The longevity of male moth was 4.95 days while female lived for 5.15 days. The mean time taken from egg to adult stage was 41.23 days.