Abstract

CORREA CHAVES, Cindy; BARONIO, Cléber Antonio; BOTTON, Marcos  and  SILVEIRA GARCIA, Mauro. Oviposition site and penetration time of oriental-fruit-moth Grapholita molesta in apple and peach trees. Investig. Agrar. [online]. 2014, vol.16, n.1, pp.29-35. ISSN 2305-0683.

Oriental-fruit-moth Grapholita molesta is one of the most important pest of apple (Malus domestica) and peach (Prunus persica). In this work, we evaluated the ovipositon preference of G. molesta on different development stages of apple and peach plants, using 15 cages type “voile”, each one containing five couples, performing subsequent counting of oviposition in branches, leaves, flowers and fruits. The penetration time of the larvae in different vegetative structures (fruits and shoots) was determined inoculating two newly hatched larvae in each plant structure, evaluating the penetration every thirty minutes for the first two hours and every sixty minutes after this period, until all larvae have penetrate. The apple and peach leaves were preferred site for oviposition of G. molesta adults. However, 7.7% of eggs occurred on apple fruits while on peach fruits, the oviposition was just 0.4%. The average time for 90% of newly hatched larvae penetrate the plant structures (TM₉₀) was lower on shoots (3.25±0.51 hours) than in the peach fruits (6.7±0.95 hours) differing from the apple, in which TM₉₀ was higher on shoots (5.23±1.29 hours) than in fruits (2.67±0.6 hours). G. molesta prefers lay eggs on leaves, regardless of the plant growth stage, while larvae penetrate faster in apples fruits and peach shoots.

Keywords : Grapholita molesta; Behaviour; pest; Malus domestica; Prunus persica.

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