Spotting

Hi xiometab,
Thank you for finding out what kind of Banana plant is involved here. That has helped me to find some better information about your hairy caterpillars. Firstly, I must admit I was wrong when I suggested the family Lymantriinae. If you look at the attached link, you will see that it includes information dealing with the kind of damage to banana leaves that you have been dealing with. I think you will find all the information you need about the caterpillars involved. - http://www.agritech.tnau.ac.in/expert_sy...

Dear @Mark Ridgway and @John B.
The banana variety is Nendran, a type of plaintain common to Kerala. They seem to eat the 'green' out of the leaves. I have more photos of the havoc they have wreaked, with entire leaves striped. Since the plantation is relatively small in size, my father physically squishes them dead. He did try an insecticide, which didn't affect them at all. Thank you for all the help again.

Hi xiometab,
Thank you so much for your answer. The reason I wanted to be sure of your age is that Project Noah has a strict minimum age limit of 18. I will try to help you, if I can, with identifications of your spottings if I see that you are having difficulty. Don't worry too much about your photos. The picture you sent , showing the hairy caterpillar was perfectly adequate and placing the ruler beside it was a good idea. Knowing the size of a specimen is helpful. I hope your dad can solve his pest problem, but please remember that I am not able to give advice on dealing with infestations. If you continue with Project Noah, I am sure that you will be made most welcome by everyone and if you do manage to get another photo of the caterpillar, I will try again to identify it to species level.

I shall try to send you more photos, and of the infestation. There are larger caterpillars than the ones I spotted.
I am quite old, in my late twenties. Just helping out my dad on his farm. I have been lurking in Project Noah since long ago, but I don't have a camera good enough to post photos that will be of use. Yesterday, a bat visited us and we took videos but not worthy to post.
Thanks a lot for the efforts. I truly appreciate them and honestly, even expect them!
This is a rare case for my dad too. He has previously grown bananas, and he don't usually mind small level pests, but these seem too voracious. I shall ask him which variety the banana trees are.

Hi xiometab,
First, I wish to apologize for confusing you, but I would also like to explain how I came to the conclusion that the larva in your picture is from the Subfamily Lymantriinae. When I looked at your spotting, I was aware that there are many “hairy” caterpillar species in India. So, I had to try and narrow down my search to the most likely groups. The way I go about this is to look carefully at the picture and then take into account any other information provided. Your picture shows a hairy caterpillar which appears to have six black tufts of hair at one end and two at the other end. That is some times the case with caterpillars from the Lymantriinae, but according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spilosoma_...... Spilosoma obliqua has tufts behind the head, but none at the other end. That appears to rule out S. obliqua, but I needed to be as sure as possible and decided to check “host plants”. I knew already that Lymantriinae eat banana leaves from time to time, here on our farm in the Philippines, but I did not consider the possibility of a serious infestation as you did not mention this until you answered my comment. However, what I discovered about S. obliqua, during my search for host plants, made me think that I could probably rule it out. I came across a scientific paper written by three Indian academics. It was titled “Report of Spilosoma oblique on banana plantations at Barpeta , Assam” In this document, it is mentioned that the host plants of S. obliqua are known to be “sesame, mung, mustard, sunflower, jute, mesta and some vegetables” and the infestation they were investigating in Assam in June/July, 2013 was the first known case of Spilosoma obliqua infesting a banana plantation. I should mention that the variety of banana in that plantation was Grand Naine, but they would surely have mentioned other varieties if they thought it important to do so. I must stop here, because I am taking up too much space for the comment box. I just wanted you to know that I did not send my first comment without putting in some considerable effort. I cannot guarantee that you “hairy worm” is a Lymantriinae, but I am reasonably sure. I must finally mention that I am not qualified to give advice on how to deal with the infestation on your banana plants. Sorry. I hope you will wish to continue with Project Noah. I am sure you will enjoy it. Since you mention your “Dad”, may I ask how old you are? You write excellent English and seem to be well educated.

Not photographed on banana leaf. Do you have photos of actual infestation?

@John B
I am sorry, but I don't know how to reply to your comment. I thought it was a Spilosoma obliqua, but now I am confused. Any more help would be of benefit. They are destroying my dad's banana trees. And he doesn't know what to do.

Hi xiometab, this is a nice first spotting on Project Noah, but it is not an easy one. The "Hairy worm", in your photos, is the larva (caterpillar) of a Tussock Moth. I can say that it belongs to the Family Erebidae; Subfamily Lymantriinae, but I have not yet been able to identify it to species level and I am not sure that I will be able to achieve that. I would like to suggest that you edit your spotting to show "Tussock Moth" in the box for Common Name and "Unidentified Lymantriinae" in the box for "Scientific Name". Wikipedia's article - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lymantriin...... will give you some useful information and you might want to put that link in the Wikipedia reference box. If you do all of that, your spotting will look better and you will be ready to insert the complete identification if it comes to light. I hope you will enjoy Project Noah and I look forward to seeing your next spotting.