Pests on Fruits 8. Grape wine

Grape vine

1. Grapevine stem girdler: Sthenias grisator :Cerambycidae: Coleoptera.

• Hosts: Rose-bushes, mulberry, garden shrubs, creepers, crotons, mango, almond, jack-fruit, bougainvillea and Indian ash-tree.
• Eggs are oval and enveloped in a white parchment like covering.  Egg period: 8 days
• Grub: Grub has dark brown head and mouth has a pair of prominent mandibles, each with two teeth.  Globular thorax with chitinous spines on top.
• Pupa: Grub pupates within the tunnel. 
• Adult: Adults are medium-sized, grey coloured beetle with a white spot at the center of each elytron.
• Wilting of branches and then the entire vine.

Gridling of vein

2. Coppery brown flea beetle: Scelodonta strigicollis :Eumolpidae: Coleoptera.

• Eggs are laid 4-7 beneath bark or in soil in groups of 20-40.  220-550 eggs/female.  Egg period: 4-8 days. 
• Grub: Grub period: 34-45 days 
• Pupa: Pupate in soil.  Pupal period ranges from 7-11 days. 
• Adult: Shining flea beetle with a metallic bronze colour and of black patches on elytra.  
• Life cycle: 53 days.  3-4 overlapping generations/year. 
• Small holes on tender leaves by adult. Root damage by grub.

3. Grapevine thrips: Rhipiphorothrips cruentatus :Thripidae: Thysanoptera.

• Adult is minute, blackish brown, with yellowish wings.
• Silvery white patches on leaves with black excreta; yellowing and withering in severe infestation

4. Grapevine mealy bug Maconellicoccus hirsutus :Pseudococcidae: Homoptera.

• Females are pinkish and sparsely covered with white wax.
• Crinkling and yellowing of leaves, rotting of berries.

5. Grapevine sphingid/Horned caterpillar Hippotion celerio :Sphingidae: Lepidoptera.  

9. Fig

     Leaf caterpillar: Hypsa ficus: Hypsidae: Lepidoptera.

•      Larva: black with hairs arising from yellowish brown warts.
•          Adult: yellow with black dots on the wings. Defoliation.  

10. Tamarind

Scale:Aspidiotus tamarindi: Diaspididae: Hemiptera

v  Yellowish and circular scales spread over developing fruit.

v  Premature shedding of buds and flowers, affecting ultimately reduce the fruit setting capacity of the tree.

11. APPLE

1.  Apple woolly aphid: Eriosoma lanigerum:Pemphegidae:Homoptera.

• Adult: Purple coloured aphids are covered with cottony mats.
• Weakening and death of the smaller plants; galls on the roots; white woolly patches on the trunk.

2.  Sanjose scale: Quadraspidiotus perniciosus:Diaspididae:Homoptera

• Hosts : Cherry, plum, pear, peach and most other temperate fruit trees.
• Adult: Female scale is yellowish orange, round, slightly convex and raised a little at the centre with a black pustule. Males are small and more linear in shape.
• The infested region in bark becomes reddish pink, purple colouration in fruits.

Scale insect

Purple colouration on fruits

3.  Cottony cushion scale:  Icerya purchasi :Margarodidae: Homoptera.

4. Apple codling moth: Cydia pomonella:Tortricidae:Lepidoptera.

• Female lays white coloured, flattened eggs, singly on developing fruits, leaves and swings.  Egg period: 4-12 days; 
• Larval period: 21-30 days; Pupal period: 8-14 days. 
• Pupa : Grown up larvae comes out of the fruit and falls on ground and reach the bark of the tree for shelter in cracks and crevices to construct a silken cocoon. 

5.  Stem borer: Apriona cinerea:Lamiidae: Coleoptera.

• Female lays eggs inside the cavity, which is excavated on shoots. Egg period: 7-9 days.  
• Grubs undergo hibernation during winter and resumes feeding in March. 
• Pupa: Pupate inside the tunnel.  Pupal period: 30-35 days. 
• Adults are ash grey beetles with numerous black tubercles at base of elytra.
• Branches with small circular hole and mass of excreta and chewed up wood particles protruding out; bark gnawed and leaves defoliated; shoots with circuitous galleries; trunk hollowed out and the infested trees remain stunted.