The diverse biological activity of neem include insect growth regulatory effects, such as moulting disturbances, prevention of pupation and inhibition of adult emergence or malformation production of abnormal pupae and production of sterility in adults (Morduce and Blackwell, 1993). The tetranortriterpinoids, meliantriol, salannin and azadirachtin occurring mainly in seeds act as antifeedants, disruptants of insect growth and development (Jacobson, 1989). Considering the importance of botanicals in the silkworm pest management as an eco-friendly approach, neem oil has been tried to control Uzifly in the present study. Sixty maggots and zero hour pupae of Uzifly were treated topically with 0.5, 1, and 1.5 µl of neem oil /1 µl of acetone with the help of Hamilton microsyrange. The treated resultants were observed for morphological deformities. Controls and Carrier controls were maintained to compare the results and the experiments were replicated six times. The neem oil treated resultants of third instar Uzifly maggots, a few of them died during moulting, some of them developed into maggot-pupal and pupal-adult intermediates, abnormal pupae, abnormal adults and remaining treated third instar maggots developed into morphologically normal adults exhibiting reduced fecundity when compared to the controls. In the neem oil treated resultants of zero hour pupae of Uzifly, a few of them died during adult eclosion, some of them developed into pupal-adult intermediates, abnormal pupae, abnormal adults and remaining treated zero hour pupae of Uzifly developed into morphologically normal adults and fecundity of these treated resultant females was reduced drastically compared to the controls.

Keywords : Neem oil, Uzifly Exorista bombycis, Maggots, Pupal-adult intermediatesAbnormal Pupa, Abnormal Adults.