Pest caterpillar, budworm, on wheat head
Budworms also knwon as heliothis, tomato caterpillar and corn earworm are Australia’s most destructive caterpillar pest. Caterpillars usually appear in late spring and chew their way through a variety of vegetables tomatoes, sweet corn, peas and lettuce, fruits cherries, citrus and strawberries and a wide range of ornamentals carnations, gardenias and roses. Damage can be holes in buds and fruit, or leaf damage such as “windows” caused by small caterpillars, or holes and tears caused by larger caterpillars. Full-size 40 mm in length budworm caterpillars have quite a colour range - green, yellow, red, brown to almost black, with a broad yellow stripe down each side of the body and a dark stripe down the centre of the back. The skin has a bumpy appearance with long dark hairs.
Size: 3557px × 5439px
Location: Wimmera, Victoria, Australia
Photo credit: © Denis Crawford / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: agriculture, armigera, australia, caterpillar, damage, earworm, grub, helicoverpa, heliothis, horticulture, insect, larva, lepidoptera, macro, noctuidae, pest, tomato, wheat
