A NEW SPECIES OF MOTH AS INSECT PEST OF CHESTNUT IN SICILY (ITALY)

Abstract

A survey on the insect pests of chestnut fruit in the chestnut groves of Mount Etna (Sicily, Italy) has been carried out for five years using pheromone traps for the most common chestnut pests belonging to Lepidoptera Tortricidae, namely Pammene fasciana (L.), Cydia splendana (Hb.), Cydia fagiglandana (Zel.), and examining the larvae present in the fruits. The latter approach was useful to reveal the presence of larvae of Curculio elephas (Gyll.) and of C. glandium Marsh.; The latter species had never been reported before from chestnut in Italy. Most of the adult moths captured in the pheromone traps were found in the traps for P. fasciana and consequently attributed to this species. Since, however, no larvae of P. fasciana but many larvae of a different, unidentifiable, species were found in the fruits, during 2007 a more punctual study was conducted on adults and larvae, both with morphological and molecular approach. This study assessed that the adults found in the traps for P. fasciana and the unknown larvae were conspecific, different from P. fasciana, and that they belong to a still undescribed species of the genus Pammene Hubner.