Infestation patterns of plum curculio, Conotrachelus nenuphar (Curculionidae) were investigated on four varieties of highbush blueberries with different fruit maturation periods. Adult feeding and oviposition was first observed in late April to early May first on early- maturing variety ‘Weymouth’ followed by mid-season varieties ‘Duke’ and ‘Bluecrop’. On late-maturing variety ‘Elliott’, feeding and oviposition was not observed until the middle of May. This pattern of infestation suggested that plum curculio emergence, feeding, and oviposition synchronizes well with the availability of suitable host fruit for oviposition/feeding on early and mid-season varieties of highbush blueberries. Late maturing varieties such as ‘Elliott’ may not have suitable fruit for oviposition when most adults are active, and therefore, may escape significant fruit injury. However, oviposition and feeding injury was observed on ‘Elliott’ in June and July indicating a possible second generation on this variety. No such injury was recorded on ‘Weymouth’ or ‘Duke’ varieties. Second generation adult emergence was monitored in a screenhouse by placing field collected infested fruit over a mixture of sand and vermiculite enclosed in screened plastic boxes. Adult emergence was first observed in the first week of July under screenhouse conditions. The extended oviposition during July on late variety “Elliott’ coinciding with the adult emergence in the screenhouse, seems to indicate the potential for completion of a second generation in New Jersey. This is the first study to document the presence of a second generation of plum curculios on New Jersey blueberries. Several studies are currently underway to confirm this finding.
Species 1: Coleoptera Curculionidae Conotrachelus nenuphar (Plum curculio)
Keywords: Highbush blueberry
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