Leaf-cut insects (defoliating pests)

Many pests are likely to eat tobacco leaves. Their feeding often result in the disappearance of more or less significant lamina portions that have been consumed (figure 1). With high pest populations, only midribs may remain (figure 2). Usually the guilty pests are easy to find, simply by a close look at the affected plants and their surroundings.
The main leaf-cut pests in France and abroad, causing such damage, are:

- Conocephalus mandibulasis (little grasshopper), Lacusta viridissima (grasshopper, figure 1) and several other species ("longhorn grasshoppers")
- Several species of grasshoppers and crickets
- Manduca sexta, Manduca quemanculata (hornworms)
- Popillia japonica (Japanese beetle, figure 2)
- Agrotis spp. (cutworm)
- Defoliating moths Heliothis armigera, Mamestra brassicae, Helicoverpa assulta, Heliothis virescens, Helicoverpa zea ... (budworms).

Figure 1	Figure 2