- Title
- An analysis of the fruit-sucking and fruit-piercing moth complex in citrus orchards in South Africa
- Creator
- Goddard, Mathew K, Hill, Martin P, Moore, Sean D
- Subject
- To be catalogued
- Date
- 2019
- Type
- text
- Type
- article
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/407000
- Identifier
- vital:70329
- Identifier
- xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-15072d6de5"
- Description
- Fruit-piercing moths are a sporadic pest of citrus, especially in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, where the adults can cause significant damage in outbreak years. However, growers confuse fruit-piercing moths with fruit-sucking moths that do not cause primary damage. In this study we trapped these moths during the 2013–2015 growing seasons. A large number of diverse fruit-feeding moths were collected through weekly sampling in citrus orchards in the Eastern Cape and northern Limpopo provinces. Twenty-three species of fruit-feeding moth were trapped. However, only two were fruit-piercing species, capable of causing primary damage, namely Serrodes partita (Fabricius) (Erebidae) and Eudocima divitiosa (Walker) (Erebidae). Surprisingly S. partita, which has been reported as the main fruit-piercing moth pest of citrus in South Africa, comprised only 6.9 % of trap catches. The categorisation of moths as fruit-piercing or fruit-sucking (causing secondary damage) was confirmed by examining the morphological structures (tearing hooks and erectile barbs) of these moths’ proboscides. This study has shown that in non-outbreak seasons, S. partita comprised only a small percentage of fruit-feeding moths in citrus orchards. However, growers may misidentify the harmless fruit-sucking species as fruit-piercing species, and thus overestimate the density of fruit-piercing moths.
- Format
- computer, online resource, application/pdf, 1 online resource (9 pages), pdf
- Publisher
- Sabinet
- Language
- English
- Relation
- African Entomology, Moore, S.D., Goddard, M. and Hill, M.P., 2019. An analysis of the fruit-sucking and fruit-piercing moth complex in citrus orchards in South Africa. African Entomology, 27(1), pp.1-9, African Entomology volume 27 number 1 p. 1 2019 1021-3589
- Rights
- Publisher
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Sabinet Terms and Conditions Statement (https://www.sabinet.co.za/terms-conditions)
- Rights
- Closed Access
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Collections
RU DST/NRF SARChI for Insects in Sustainable Agricultural Ecosystems
Hill, Martin Patrick (Distinguished Professor)
SDG 15. Life On Land
RU Department of Zoology and Entomology
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details | SOURCE1 | An analysis of the fruit-sucking and fruit-piercing moth complex in citrus orchards in South Africa.pdf | 701 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |