Abstract

About 171 species of insects are associated with living teak. Many of these insects are minor or occasional pests and very few are recognised as major pests. In general the pests of teak can be divided into two groups, leaf feeders and trunk borers. The leaf feeders include the lepidopterans, Hyblaea puera Cramer (Hyblaeidae) and Eutectona machaeralis (Walker) (Pyraustidae) . The trunk borers include Sahyadrassus malabaricus Moore (= phasus malabaricus Moore) and Alcterogystia cadambae (Moore) (= Cossus cadambae Moore) .. Important nursery pests include white grubs of Holotrichia sp. H. fissa has been reported to cause 20-30 percent mortality of seedlings in various nurseries in Kerala. Tbe biology, seasonal incidence pattern, impact and control strategies of the important pests are discussed in this paper. Among the four major pests, the teak defoliator is considered to be the most economically important as the defoliation caused by this pest affect the volume increment of