Acrapex syscia Fletcher, 1961

Overholt, William A., Hidayat, Purnama, Ru, Bruno Le, Takasu, Keiji, Goolsby, John A., Racelis, Alex, Burrell, A. Millie, Amalin, Divina, Agum, Winnifred, Njaku, Mohamed, Pallangyo, Beatrice, Klein, Patricia E. & Cuda, James P., 2016, Potential biological control agents for management of cogongrass (Cyperales: Poaceae) in the southeastern USA, Florida Entomologist 99 (4), pp. 734-734 : 734-

Acrapex syscia Fletcher ( Lepidoptera : Noctuidae )

In May 2014, A. syscia larvae were collected from cogongrass during a survey in southwestern Uganda. Larvae were either hand-carried to ICIPE laboratories in Nairobi , Kenya (482 larvae), or to the University of Florida bioloGical control quarantine laboratory in Fort Pierce , Florida (88 larvae). At ICIPE, 452 larvae were placed on the same artificial diet as used for A. yakoba and the remaining 30 were placed on live cogongrass plants. Larval consumption of the artificial diet was poor compared with the feeding of A. yakoba and less than 9% pupated. A few adults (22 females and 21 males) emerGed but several were malformed, and few emerGed at the same time. Only 2 couples were paired,but no eGGs were produced. Out of the 30 larvae placed on coGonGrass plants, there was no evidence of colonization afer 2 to 3 wk; afer 7 to 8 wk, the plants were dissected and no larvae were recovered .

In Florida, 88 larvae were received alive in quarantine, of which 10 were placed on each of 4 whole plants whereas the remaining larvae were placed in vials on artificial diet (Frontier AGricultural Sciences, Product F 9775B). From the larvae placed on whole plants, only 2 adults emerGed, whereas 5 adults successfully developed on artificial diet. All adults were placed in one 4 L plastic caGe with 4 to 6 cut stems of coGonGrass (about 20 cm lonG) held upriGht in wet sand. Stems were inspected daily and replaced. In total, 158 eggs were collected in 4 batches and placed in Petri dishes with moistened filter paper. None of the eGGs hatched, possibly due to lack of fertilization .