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Egg

Related invasive species

  • Conotrachelus nenuphar

Related Farm Practice

  • Feeding
  • Damage
Impact


The plum curculio, C. nenuphar, is native to North America and restricted to east of the Rocky Mountains. Although it feeds on several wild host plants and several species of cultivated pome and stone fruit, C. nenuphar has not extended its geographical range over the years. Given its life-cycle (larvae complete their development and diapause in the soil), it is not likely to be a global invasive species. It can be considered as a local invader, as it will invade any new orchard plant (apple: Malus;plum: Prunus;peach: Prunus) and thereby become a serious pest of these agricultural habitats.

Has Cabi datasheet ID
15164
Symptons


On apple, C. nenuphar can cause two types of damage. In spring, females oviposit in young fruit, marking them with characteristic half-moon shaped scars;and in spring and summer, the adults puncture the fruit causing round (2-3 mm diameter), feeding scars.
The appearance of plum curculio damage is highly variable and, of all fruit damage rated by IPM specialists, damage caused by plum curculio had the lowest average agreement level (71.8%) (Vincent and Hanley, 1997). Internal damage to the fruit is caused by larval feeding and exit holes. Most infested fruits drop prematurely in June, though cherries rot on the trees. Adult feeding may also cause marginal damage to leaves and blossoms.

Hosts


Peaches, apricots and nectarines are the preferred hosts of C. nenuphar but apples are also widely affected. Apples are less damaged in areas adjacent to peach orchards than in areas where peaches are little grown. Pears are often scarred and deformed by the feeding and egg punctures of C. nenuphar but the larvae fail to develop in them (Armstrong, 1958). There are varietal differences in the susceptibility of apples, with eggs being destroyed and larval establishment being prevented by fruit growth in some varieties (Paradis, 1957). The larvae have also been found developing inside leaf curl galls and pockets in plum fruits, caused by the fungus Taphrina communis. The black excrescences of Dibotryon morbosum [ Apiosporina morbosa ] also provide satisfactory food for the larvae (EPPO, 1979). For further information on the hosts of C. nenuphar, see Maier (1990) and Yonce et al. (1995).
With mark and release experiments, Leskey and Wright (2007) established that the order of preference of the host range for C. nenuphar as (in decreasing order of preference): Japanese plum (Prunus salicina), European plum (Prunus domestica), peach (Prunus persica), sweet cherry (Prunus avium), tart cherry (Prunus cerasus), apricot (Prunus armeniaca), apple (Malus domestica) and pear (Pyrus communis).

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