Helicoverpa punctigera, the native budworm, Australian bollworm or Chloridea marmada, is a species of moth in the family Noctuidae.
H. punctigera are capable of long-distance migration from their inland Australian habitat towards coastal regions[2] and are an occasional migrant to New Zealand.
[4] Outside of agricultural settings, primary host plants include some Australian native daisies, in particular flat billy buttons Leiocarpa brevicompta,[5] annual yellow tops Senecio gregorii, poached egg daisy Polycamma stuartii,[6] and also the native legume Cullen cinereum.
Observed to be various shades of brown, green and orange, the larvae's colour darkens as it matures and the dark spots on it become more apparent.
The pupal tunnels constructed are smoothed, well-packed soil with a thin layer of silk.
Rain and other external conditions that might collapse the tunnel reduces the survival rate of the adult H. punctigera due to the disruption of emergence.
The female typically lay their eggs either in clusters or singly on various developing fruit and flower buds.
As they are nocturnal, they rest during the day and are active at night [17] Belonging to the insecta class of animals, the H. punctigera follows an oviposition behaviour where it expulses its eggs by a vertebrate.
Selecting an area in the open will lead to the eggs and larvae being susceptible to various predatory insects and animals.
[19] As of 2019[update] tracking had been greatly improved by advances in radar, population genetics markers, and dispersal modeling.
H. punctigera particularly feed on high value crops such as cotton, soybean, maize, and tomato and various other horticultural hosts.
[9] In the early larvae stages, the H. punctigera feed on seeds and damage plant pods while in the mid to late stages of development, the larger H. punctigera larvae is able to consume entire plant pods and their contents.
While in the larval stage, H. punctigera cause farmers to lose millions of dollars’ worth of crops due to their polyphagous eating habits.
They prefer eating mostly broadleaf species of plants such as cotton, chickpea and various native herbs in addition to a broad selection of other various pastures.
[17] When the H. punctigera consumes crops, chewing damage and holes can be observed on the plant pods and seed heads.
[8] Unlike the closely related H. armigera, H. punctigera has not developed any resistance to majority of the chemical control measures created.
These genetically modified plants produce their own Bacillus thuringiensis toxin that are toxic to the H. punctigera larvae.
In addition to chemical pesticides, various Biopesticides have been created to manage H. punctigera in vegetation and field crops.
Parasitoids that attack the H. punctigera include the Trichogramma and Ichneumon genera of wasps and Cacelia genus of flies.