The sweet potato butterfly Acraea acerata in Ethiopia : ecology and economic importance
1999
Ferdu Azerefegne (Awasa College of Agriculture, Awasa (Ethiopia))
The sweet potato butterfly (Acraea acerata Hew.) has become an important pest on sweet potato in southern Ethiopia in the last two decades. This thesis deals with its ecology and economic importance in Southern Ethiopia. The insect is indigenous to this area where it feeds on both native wild Ipomoea species and the introduced sweet potato (I. batatas). However, its performance was better on the new host, sweet potato. The small a. acerata populations on the scattered patches of the native Ipomoea species evidently contribute little to the population dynamics of A. Acerata in sweet potato fields. It is proposed that assessment of A. acerata damage should be based on young larvae density because they are easy to count, better correlated with yield loss and surveying at this development stage leaves enough time to decide on control measures.
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