An assessment of the quarantine risk of armoured scale (Hemiptera: Diaspididae) fruit infestations on kiwifruit

Abstract

The nature of scale infestations was characterised for kiwifruit rejected for export from a packhouse at Kerikeri and at Whangarei, New Zealand from 1987 to 1991. Of the total 14 390 scale examined, 8% at Kerikeri and 4% at Whangarei were live mature scale. This stage can liberate mobile crawlers and is thus the only quarantine risk as all other stages are sessile. Close examination of the fruit revealed that 51% of fruit had scale infestations, which detract from the appearance of the fruit, 32% had "acceptable" scale, 15% had no scale, and 2% had scale hidden under the calyx. If we assume unacceptable scale contaminated fruit will be discarded at the grading table for cosmetic reasons, the live mature scale or quarantine risk of the remaining "acceptable" scale infested fruit reduces to 1.4% at Kerikeri and 0.7% at Whangarei. The implications of these risk assessments on the kiwifruit industry in New Zealand are discussed.

Armoured scale infestation of fruit of Hort16A kiwifruit

“…No comparison of numbers of scale on packhouse rejected Hort16A and Hayward fruit was made. However, the frequency distribution of scale from Hort16A fruit in this study differed from an earlier study carried out on Hayward in which single scale were found on >60% of the scale rejected fruit and multiples were found on fewer fruit (Blank et al 1993).…”

Preliminary results of the scale insects (Hemiptera: Sternorryncha) exploration from West Halmahera, in the Eastern Weber line of Wallacea

“…Species from the Diaspididae group are very difficult to control because they are attached to plant surfaces [13]. Hence, many armored scales species are also of quarantine concern; therefore, this will require a prevention effort of their spread, especially in exporting plant products [14]. In Indonesia, the Diaspididae record is the most diverse family in the Sternorrhyncha suborder, with 158 species belonging to 44 genera [15].…”

Development and Mortality of Greedy Scale (Homoptera: Diaspididae) at Constant Temperatures

“…Chev.) C. F. Liang et A. R. Ferguson variety deliciosa, grown in New Zealand (Steven 1990;Blank et al 1992Blank et al , 1993. All kiwifruit grown for export are managed using a program called KiwiGreen, which ensures that fruit are free of pesticide residues (Steven et al 1991(Steven et al , 1994Blank et al 1994;Stevens et al 1997).…”