Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Mar;81(3):1539-1546.
doi: 10.1002/ps.8558. Epub 2024 Nov 29.

Moisture-dependent pupation of the invasive thrips Chaetanaphothrips orchidii: implications for its management

Carolina Juncá-Morales  1 , José Catalán  1 , María A Gómez-Martínez  1 , Diego S Intrigliolo  2 , Alejandro Tena  1
Affiliations

Moisture-dependent pupation of the invasive thrips Chaetanaphothrips orchidii: implications for its management

Carolina Juncá-Morales et al. Pest Manag Sci. 2025 Mar.

Abstract

Background: Chaetanaphothrips orchidii is an invasive thrips of tropical origin that was detected in 2016 in Spanish citrus, where it can damage up to 70% of the fruit. Pupation site and emergence rates are key biological traits for thrips management that are unknown for C. orchidii. Here, we determined the pupation site and period of C. orchidii in citrus and evaluated the effect of soil moisture on adult emergence.

Results: A two-year field study showed that C. orchidii pupated in the soil from May to December in commercial citrus orchards. Chaetanaphothrips orchidii emergence was very low compared to other harmful thrips species in citrus. Using D/E traps, we demonstrated that the thrips emerged mainly from wet areas near drip irrigation emitters during the summer, and its emergence was strongly related to the soil water content. A laboratory experiment confirmed that C. orchidii did not emerge at RH below 70%, and its emergence peaked at 97% RH.

Conclusions: Our results have important implications for the sustainable management of C. orchidii because soil moisture is very low in Mediterranean citrus during summer, except in areas near drip irrigation emitters. Therefore, these and other potential high-humidity areas should be considered crucial targets to manage this pest in citrus during summer, reducing cost and labor. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.

Keywords: IPM; biological control; citrus; irrigation; soil water content: Pest control.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Seebens H, Blackburn TM, Dyer EE, Genovesi P, Hulme PE, Jeschke JM et al., No saturation in the accumulation of alien species worldwide. Nat Commun 8:1–9 (2017).
    1. Morse JG and Hoddle MS, Invasion biology of thrips. Annu Rev Entomol 51:67–89 (2006).
    1. Vono G, Bonsignore CP and Marullo R, A comprehensive Thrips species assessment for eco‐consistent management of infestations in Mediterranean citrus crops. Horticulturae 8:137 (2022).
    1. Navarro‐Campos C, Aguilar A and Garcia‐Mari F, Population trend and fruit damage of Pezothrips kellyanus (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) in citrus groves in Valencia (Spain). IOBC/WPRS Bull 62:285–292 (2011).
    1. Atakan E, Pehlivan S and Achiri TD, Pest status of the Hawaiian flower thrips, Thrips hawaiiensis (Morgan) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) in lemons in the Mediterranean region of Turkey. Phytoparasitica 49:513–525 (2021).

LinkOut - more resources