L.orbonalis Guenee is essentially monophagous, encouraging mainly on eggplant; in any case, different plants having a place with family Solanaceae are accounted for to be hosts of this pest. Besides brinjal, it was also found to attack shoots and fruits of tomato (Das and Patnaik 1970), potato (Solarium tuberosum L.), green peas (Pisum sativum L.) and Solanum torvum Swartz (Hill 1987). Other wild species of Solanum are also attacked by this pest (Karim 1994). Lsahaquc and Chaudhury (1983) reported Solanum nigrum, S. indicum, S. torvum, S.myriacanthum and potato as alternate host plants of BSFB in Assam. Das and Patnaik (1970) studied that Leucinodes orbonalis Guenee, a serious pest of brinjal (Solanum melongena), was also observed to bore into the shoots and fruits of tomato in Bhubaneswar, India. The insect was found to be able to complete its development on tomato and also on the weed S. nigrum, but moths that had been reared on the latter were smaller and laid fewer eggs than those reared on tomato or brinjal.

Like different individuals from the order Lepidoptera, L. orbonalis experiences four development stages: egg, Larva, pupa and adult. The larval period is the longest, followed by pupal and egg period.

Oviposition takes place during the night and eggs are laid singly on the lower surface of the young leaves, green stems, flower buds, or calyces of the fruits and number of eggs laid by female varies from 80 to 253 (Taley et al. 1984; Alpuerto 1994), however, reported as high as 260 (FAO, 2003). They are flattened, elliptical with 0.5 mm in diameter and colour is creamy-white but change to red before hatching (Alam et al. 2006).

The larval period lasts 12-15 days during summer and 14 - 22 days during winter season (Rahman et al. 2006). Larvae pass through at least five instars (Atwal 1976) and there are reports of the existence of six larval instars (Baang and Corey 1991; FAO 2003). First instars are found in flower buds and flowers, second instars in all susceptible plant parts, third and fourth instars in shoots and fruits and fifth instars mostly in fruits (Rahman et al. 2006). BSFB damage is caused by the larva which feeds inside the fruit and at the same time leave large exit holes when leaving to pupate, reducing the market value of the fruits and rendering them unfit for human consumption (Alam et al. 2003).

The full- grown larvae come out of the infested shoots and fruits and pupate in the dried shoots and leaves or in plant debris fallen on the ground within tough silken cocoons. There were evidences of presence of cocoons at soil depths of 1 to 3 cm (Alam et al., 2003). They pupate on the surface they touch first (FAO, 2003). The pupal period lasts 6 to 17 days depending upon temperature (Alam et al. 2003).

The adult is a small white moth with 40-segmented antennae (Sexena 1965) and having spots on fore wings of 20 to 22 mm spread. It gains full maturity in 10 to 14 days. Longevity of adults lasts 1.5 to 2.4 days for males and 2.0 to 3.9 days for females. The pre-oviposition and oviposition periods range 1.2 to 2.1 and 1.4 to 2.9 days, respectively (Mehto et al. 1983). The adult male dies after mating and the female moth dies after laying eggs (Kar et al. 1995). The overall life cycle completes in 22 to 55 days. It gives rise five generations a year and is active throughout the year.

FAO (2003) showed the effect of climatic conditions in the life cycle of the L. orbonalis in eggplant. L. orbonalisis active in summer months, especially during the rainy season and less active from November to February. Peak populations are often reported in June-August.

L. orbonalis attacks mostly on flowering, fruiting and vegetative growing stage on fruits/pods, growing points and inflorescence (CABI, 2007). The higher percent of the larvae was in fruits followed by shoots, flowers, flower buds and midrib of leaves (Alpuruto 1994). In young plants, caterpillars are accounted for to exhaust inside petioles and midribs of extensive leaves (Butani and Jotwani 1984; Alpureto 1994; AVRDC. 1998) along these lines shrivelling, dropoff and shrink of the young shoots occur prompting delay on shoot development, decrease on yield and yield parameter. The caterpillars of Leucinodes orbonalis drill into the developing points of young tender shoots and a wilted drooping shoots a run of the mall manifestation, which at last shrivels away. The fruiting beads droop down while the fruits indicate round openings, which are the leave gaps of the caterpillar (Peshwani and Lal 1964).

At vegetative stage, the recently brought forth larvae bore in to petioles and midrib of huge leaves and young delicate shoots they feed up on the inward tissue causing the shoot hung down and wilted at the regenerative stage. The larvae like to drill into blossom buds and furthermore go into the plagued fruits through the calyx.

Damage to the fruits, especially in harvest time, is exceptionally extreme and the entire yield can be annihilated (Atwal 1976). Ghosh and Senapati (2009) found that this pest causes the most destruction and is most dynamic amid the late spring months, i.e., from May to August. It turns out to be less dynamic amid the winter months, especially in December and January. Patel et al. (1988) discovered shoot and fruit damage in brinjal by BSFB was higher in May transplanted (spring) crops than that in July and September transplanted (fall) crops. The misfortunes caused by insect change from season to season since direct temperature and high moisture support the population development of brinjal shoot and fruit borer (Shukla and Khatri 2010), (Bhushan et al. 2011). Watching the drilling openings, the pervaded fruits can be distinguished without much of a stretch. Furthermore, the dull shaded excreta can be seen without much of a stretch to the opening of pervaded fruits.