Codling Moth Survival in Cherry: Effect of Cultivars and Fruit Maturity

Abstract

The codling moth, Cydia pomonella(L.) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) is a quarantine pest for sweet cherries, Prunus avium(L.), exported to Japan. Development of rearing techniques for codling moth on cherries would improve the disinfestation methods and increase the understanding of the pest-host relationship. Hence, codling moth development from first instar to adult was studied in the laboratory on sets of immature and mature fruits of ‘Bing’, ‘Cashmere’, ‘Chelan’, ‘Rainier’, and ‘Van’ cultivars. Immature apples were used as controls. Larvae developing from cherries took significantly longer to become adults than those from apples. The highest adult emergence from infested cherries was from ‘Chelan’ with 16% from immature fruits and 8% from mature fruits, whereas emergence was < 6% from other cherry cultivars. Adult emergence from apples was 62 to 77%. Weight and fecundity of female adults from cherries were significantly less than those reared from apples. These results demonstrate that although codling moth can be reared from cherry under controlled laboratory conditions, host suitability of the fruit is poor, and postharvest disinfestation treatments for fruits intended for export need not be as severe as those for other quarantine pests.