First Record of Myelobia smerintha (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae: Crambinae) in Sugarcane in Colombia1

Abstract

Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) cultivation occupies approximately 474,559 ha in Colombia (Cenicaña 2011). The Hoya del Río Suárez region (Boyacá and Santander Departments in north-central Colombia) produced 100,799 tons of sugar, which accounted for 40% of the total volume of sugarcane grown for the production of panela (MADR-CCI 2012). Other major production areas are the Departments of Cundinamarca (24%), Antioquia (20%), Huila (6%), and Nariño (11%) (MADR-CCI 2012). Panela is a molded rectangular block of sugar produced by heating and concentrating sugarcane juice. Colombia is the second largest producer of panela in the world after India (Rodríguez 2000). Production of sugarcane is affected by different insect pests, and borers in the genusDiatraea (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae: Crambinae) are considered the most damaging and commonly encountered (Bustillo-Pardey 2013). Larvae of Crambinae feed upon roots and leaves of sugarcane. They bore into grasses, sedges, and rushes (Stehr 1987, Landry 1995). Larvae of Myelobia smerintha (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae: Crambinae) are known to bore inside stem internodes of bamboo (Guadua aculeateRupr. Ex E. Fourn.) and taquara (Bambusa tuldoides Munro) (both Poaceae), two species closely related to sugarcane (Neto & Ramos-Elorduy 2006, Landry et al. 2015). In this paper, we report the detection of M. smerintha using sugarcane as a developmental host. This is not the first record of M. smerintha in Colombia (Bleszynski 1967), but it is the first record of sugarcane as a host plant for this giant Crambinae species. In November 2015 and February 2016, a total of 10 unidentified borer larvae were collected manually from sugarcane plants in the municipality of Villeta, Cundinamarca Department. The sugarcane plants were grown near a corridor of guadua, Guadua angustifolia Kunth (Poaceae). The larvae were taken to the