First record of lepidopteran borers in macadamia nuts in Brazil

Abstract

Brazil recently began commercial cultivation of macadamia nuts, making it necessary to identify the insect pests attacking them in order to develop a pest management program. This study reports the occurrence of lepidopteran borers in macadamia fruits of orchards from the municipality of Jaboticabal, state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Sampling was performed biweekly by visually searching for attacked fruits. The nuts collected had circular holes caused by lepidopteran larvae. The borers identified were Elaphria hypophaea (Hampson) (Noctuidae), Gymnandrosoma aurantianum (Lima) (Tortricidae), and Ectomyelois ceratoniae (Zeller) (Pyralidae), which occurred in the stages of fruit formation and growth, ripe fruits, and dropped fruits, respectively. This is the first record of E. hypophaea as a macadamia fruit borer worldwide, and the first record of G. aurantianum and E. ceratoniae as macadamia fruit borers in Brazil.