Bamboo worm
| Omphisa fuscidentalis | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Crambidae |
| Genus: | Omphisa |
| Species: | O. fuscidentalis |
| Binomial name | |
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Omphisa fuscidentalis (Hampson, 1896) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Omphisa fuscidentalis, the bamboo borer, is a moth of the Crambidae family. Its habitat are the bamboo groves and forests in the cooler regions of northern Thailand, northern Laos, northern Myanmar, and adjacent parts of Yunnan Province, China. The mature caterpillars are viewed as a delicacy by the inhabitants of these regions.
The wingspan of the male is 4 cm with a 2-cm-long body. The female is slightly larger with a 4.5 cm wingspan and a 2.2-cm-long body. The wings of this moth are orange-brown in colour, with black, curved stripes. The caterpillar is white in colour with a body length of 3.5 to 4 cm.
The adult moth only lives for two months: July and August. Mating takes place at night in early August after which the female lays a cluster of about 80-130 eggs near the base of a bamboo shoot. The larvae hatch after 12 days, and are pale brown in colour and covered with long hair. Working together, the larvae bore an entrance hole at an internode of the bamboo in one day. After entering the shoot, they then, also in one day, bore an exit hole for the mature moths from which to eventually emerge. The larvae turn white within three days.
Boring their way upwards from one bamboo internode to another, the larvae feed on the fresh inner pulp of the bamboo while avoiding common predators such as birds. After 45 to 60 days, the larvae mature and migrate down to the internode containing the exit hole where they enter a period of diapause for eight months, hanging upside down from the roof of the internode. This long period of diapause is exceptional for a tropical insect, and probably caused by the monsoonal character of the region which has a cool, dry period from November to February, a hot season from March to June, followed by a wet period from June through October, affecting the availability of food for the larvae. The pupal phase takes 46 to 60 days and falls in June and July.
Eleven different species of bamboo are infested. The infestation does not harm the plants, but instead makes the bamboo stronger than uninfested bamboo. However, the bamboo worm's activity may cause irregular growth patterns in the bamboo shoots which they occupy. In northern Thailand, O. fuscidentalis infestations have been found in Dendrocalamus membranaceus, D. hamiltonii, D. strictus, Bambusa nutans, B. blumeana, albociliata, and G. nigrociliata.
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Wikipedia