Primer registro de polillas perforadoras de frutos (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) de Colombia

Abstract

En plena época de cosecha, junio y julio de 2016, se presentó una inusual caída de frutos de mandarina y naranja que causó cuantiosas pérdidas en varios municipios productores del departamento de Santander, nororiente de Colombia. En algunos de los frutos se encontraron punciones, de las cuales se originaban pudriciones blandas; daño desconocido por los agricultores de la región. Muestreos nocturnos permitieron detectar dos especies de polillas: Eudocima apta y E. procus, realizando punciones en los frutos. La incidencia de los daños dejó de ser alta al desaparecer las polillas. Este es el primer reporte de polillas perforadoras de frutos en cultivos comerciales de naranja y mandarina en Colombia. Simultáneamente, a 60 km al oriente de los cultivos de cítricos, también se detectaron en el páramo de Berlín, municipio de Silos entre 3.000 a 3.100 msnm, lejos de cualquier huerto frutícola y de la planta hospedera registrada para E. apta, sugiriendo que se trataba de un paso migratorio.

Synopsis of fruit-piercing moths of the genus Eudocima (Lepidoptera, Erebidae) from Colombia

“…The checklist presented here collates literature records for Colombia based on Walker ([1858]) and Montes et al (2018) with specimen data drawn from the following entomological collections:…”

“…6). Remarkably, the high intensity ENSO event between 2014-2016 seems to have markedly increased the number of individuals in collections and outbreaks such as those reported in citrus (Montes et al 2018). Collections data provide invaluable information but there are some issues that cannot exclusively be addressed with these.…”

“…On the other hand, Eudocima moths were recently recorded for the first time as occasional fruit pests in Latin America; E. apta and E. serpentifera on papaya in Mexico (Hernández-Ruiz et al 2017) and E. apta and E. procus on citrus in Colombia (Montes et al 2018). At least in Colombia, damage by these moths was previously unknown by farmers, so many questions now arise about their origin and frequency.…”

“…Unusually dry periods such as those recorded by Cochereau (1977) are also known to occur during ENSO events in the Andean region, especially in the eastern mountain range and the Caribbean region of Colombia (Montealegre 2007), where they have the potential to boost populations of fruit-piercing moths. The outbreaks of these moths on citrus orchards recorded from several municipalities in Colombia (Montes et al 2018) were most likely triggered by the 2014-2016 ENSO event. Van Bael et al (2004) also reported an outbreak of E. apta in Panama on June 1998, which was apparently influenced by the ENSO episode of 1997-1998.…”

“…In Colombia, E. apta (Walker, [1858]) and E. procus (Cramer, 1777), two species widely distributed in the Neotropics, were recently reported as occasional citrus pests (Montes et al 2018), but the diversity and distribution of this genus in the country are unknown. Vouchers in biological collections can provide important information about the spatial and temporal distribution of species.…”