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. 2021 Jul 6;12(7):612.
doi: 10.3390/insects12070612.

Different Population Phenologies of Grapholita molesta (Busck) in Two Hosts and Two Nearby Regions in the NE of Spain

Carles Amat  1   2 , Dolors Bosch-Serra  3 , Jesús Avilla  4 , Lucía Adriana Escudero Colomar  2
Affiliations

Different Population Phenologies of Grapholita molesta (Busck) in Two Hosts and Two Nearby Regions in the NE of Spain

Carles Amat et al. Insects. .

Abstract

Grapholita molesta is an important pest of stone and pome fruits. In commercial orchards, integrated pest management programs use pheromone traps to monitor the population dynamics of G. molesta and adjust treatments. Phenology models can be used to forecast the population phenology of pests and to help optimise the time point at which to spray the orchards with insecticides. In the present study, the adult population phenologies of G. molesta in two provinces of north-east Spain were studied, as well as their fit to the phenology model most used in both provinces. Weekly captures of adults in pheromone traps through the season were recorded over 5 y in a large number of commercial orchards, and these data were used to determine the number of generations of G. molesta in each province. The results show significant differences between provinces in the generation time, being 97 degree days (DD) shorter in the Lleida province than in the Girona province. In Girona province, four generations were registered, while five were detected in Lleida. As a result of the differences found, the phenology model was not able to predict precisely the population dynamics in the Girona province.

Keywords: Catalonia; Grapholita molesta; Spain; apple; peach; phenology model; population dynamics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A) Map of Spain showing the location of the two provinces of the north-east, (B) Lleida and (C) Girona, hosting the five fruit-growing areas studied: Girona: AE: Alt Empordà (pome fruit-growing area), BE: Baix Empordà (pome fruit-growing area), and Lleida: ST: Stone fruit-growing area, MI: Mixed stone and pome fruit-growing area and PO: Pome fruit-growing area. The locations of the official weather stations are indicated with pink dots.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Weekly moth catches (mean ± SE) for each year (2015–2019) and for each area. (A) Alt Empordà and (B) Baix Empordà, both of Girona province; and (C) Stone area, (D) Mixed area, and (E) Pome area, the three of Lleida province. Dotted vertical lines indicate the approximate minima between flights. Shades of each line indicates the SE. Note: the y-axis scale is different for AB than for CDE.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mean weekly moth catches plotted against accumulated DD for each year (2015–2019) and for each area. (A) Alt Empordà and (B) Baix Empordà, both of Girona province; and (C) Stone area, (D) Mixed area and (E) Pome area, the three of the Lleida province. Background colours indicate the predicted generation range of the phenology model (535 DD) [18]. Note: the y-axis scale is different for AB than for CDE.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Mean weekly moth catches in the Girona province plotted against DD for each area and year. (A) Alt Empordà and (B) Baix Empordà, both of Girona province. Background colours indicate the predicted generation range of the phenology model [18] plus 60 DD for feeding on apples (595 DD in total) as reported by Myers et al. [33] and Yang et al. [34].
Figure 5
Figure 5
Duration of each generation in DD (mean ± SE) in each province. Different letters indicate significant differences between generations within a province (p < 0.05, Tukey).
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