ABSTRACT
Insect pests of tea: shot hole borers, termites and nematodes Nalini C. Gnanapragasam, Former Deputy Director (Research), Tea Research Institute, Sri Lanka; currently Agricultural Tea Consultant - Malwatte Valley Plantations PLC, Sril Lanka
1 Introduction
2 Shot hole borers
3 Termites of tea: general comments
4 Live wood termites
5 Scavenging termites
6 Nematodes
7 Where to look for further information
8 Acknowledgements
9 References
Tea (Camellia sinensis (L) O Kuntze) is a perennial tree crop that has been grown for hundreds of years and is therefore exposed to the ravages of a wide variety of pests. Depending on the climatic conditions and local environmental niche, every part of the plant is vulnerable to attack by one or more herbivorous pests. Currently there are records of just over 1000 arthropod pests (Chen and Chen, 1989) and several pathogenic nematode species attacking the tea crop (Gnanapragasam, 2014). However, amongst these, only a few are known to cause economic damage to tea (Table 1).
