Abstract
This study is intended to look into the difference in the percentage of fruits infested by the aucuba fruit midge, Asphondylia aucubae YUKAWA and OHSAKI between wild and cultivated varieties of Aucuba japonica THUNB. A. aucubae is univoltine. The adults emerge from galls on host trees in spring, and the females lay their eggs in the young fruits. The infested fruits are seedless, mostly green tinged with red, and are distinctly smaller than normal fruits. The field survey was carried out at three different places in Kagoshima city; Terayama, Shiroyama and Korimoto. About 20% of 2234 fruits examined were infested on the wild variety at Terayama and 12% of 2942 fruits at Shiroyama. On the cultivated variety, however, no infestation was found among 1194, 369 and 1377 fruits examined at Terayama, Shiroyama and Korimoto, respectively. After examining several possibilities to explain the difference, we reached the conclusion that it is related to the phenology of the host plant. The blooming season of the cultivated variety is apparently later than that of the wild one. This result indicates that the young fruits on the former are not available for oviposition during the emergence season of the gall midge.
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