Pests on Spices & Plantation IX.Coffee

IX. Coffee

1.  White stem borer xylotrechus quadripes cerambycidae: coleoptera.

Arabica coffee is the most preferred and principal host plant

• Grub: white or yellowish, anterior end broader and tapering towards tail end.
• Adult: black elongate beetle with grey pubescence on the head, thorax and elytra; forewings are black with white bands.
• Ridges around the stem, yellowing and wilting of leaves. Young plants (7 to 8 years old) attacked by the borer may die in a year. 

2. Coffee berry borer Hypothenemus hampei: Scolytidae:Coleoptera.

• Under Indian conditions, Robusta suffers badly than Arabica
• Grub: White. 
• Adult:small black beetle; male wingless.
• Pin hole at the tip of the berries, Grub feed on the beans by making small tunnels. Dropping of tender berries.

Pin hole at the tip of the berries

3. Shot–hole borer or Ambrosia beetle: Xylosandrus compactus :Scolytidae: Coleoptera.

• Larva: milky white, apodous.
• Adult: Light reddish brown with a short cylindrical body. Body is covered with fine hairs.
• Small holes on the undersurface of young succulent branches between nodes.

Tunneling by Beetle

4. Red borer, Zeuzera cof­feae: Cossidae: Lepidop­tera.

5. Green scale: Coccus viridis:Coccidae: Hemiptera.

• It is a serious pest of coffee (Arabica). It is also a polyphagous pest infesting citrus, mango, guava, sapota.
• Adult scale is flat, oval, light green with an irregular, distinct intestinal loop of blackish spots visible through the dorsum.