Close-up of the caterpillars devastating crops in Liberia (Image: Zoom Dosso / AFP / Getty)
Update: On 29 January, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization confirmed that the caterpillars in the Liberia outbreak are of the same species of armyworm that is a well known pest in east Africa. However, the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation has now told New Scientist that their first impression, that they are an unidentified species with a strikingly different life cycle, has now been borne out by laboratory observations in Accra.
A THRONG of crop-eating caterpillars is threatening food supplies across west Africa, and…
