author(s)
K Manjula, Y Peeru Saheb, M John Sudheer and A Ramakrishna Rao

abstract
Fall Armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith), a new invasive insect pest is native to Americas and it was recorded as devastating pest of Maize in African Countries in 2016. In India, the occurrence of FAW was reported from Karnataka state during May 2018. In Southern Agroclimatic zone of Andhra Pradesh, Fall Armyworm was first noticed in Chittor District during August 2018 on Maize. Subsequently on other crops viz., Ragi, bajra, fodder maize, sugarcane. In the fields of early stages of Maize crop, egg masses that are covered with cream coloured hair and scraping symptoms on the leaves were observed. The scraping symptoms caused by first and second instars, shot holes and voracious cut feeding by later instars were recorded. The larvae were collected from maize fields of Chittor district, culture was maintained in the laboratory, studied the characters of egg, six larval instars, pupa and adult stages. The confirmation as Spodoptera frugiperda was done with the key identification character viz., “distinct inverted Y shaped suture on head region and exact square shaped pustules on 8^th segment of the abdomen”. The cadavers of S. frugiperda with tree top symptom were noticed in maize fields of Chittor District, the pathogen was identified as Nuclear Polyhedrosis Virus (NPV). Like wise from the cadavers collected from Anantapur District, Cytoplasmic Polyhedrosis Virus (CPV) infection was confirmed. B.t infected caterpillars were also seen in maize fields and the pathogen was confirmed. During 2019 kharif, the cadavers infected with Metarhizium anisopliae were collected from maize fields. S. frugiperda larvae were treated with NPV, B.t, Nomuraea rileyi and Metarhizium anisopliae in the laboratory at 1X10⁷ POBs or Spores per ml concentration and found the larvae highly susceptible to all the pathogens.