Effects of infestation by the bean webworm, Pleuroptya ruralis (Scopoli) (lepidoptera: Pyralidae), on the growth and yield of soybeans

Abstract

Damage to soybeans infested by larvae of the bean webworm, Pleuroptya ruralis (Scopoli), was evaluated. In the soybean plants whose leaves had a >80% infestation rate at the early pod-development stage, the stems became thin in contrast to those whose leaves had a < 10% infestation rate. Moreover, in the former, the numbers of pods and seeds per plant and the weight of seeds decreased, resulting in the yields of about half of the latter.