Abstract
As a first step in understanding the pest status of thrips in wine grapes in New Zealand, we aimed to determine the species composition of thrips in grape inflorescences in four grape-growing regions of the country (sampling grape cv. ‘Chardonnay’ from 18 growers) and to quantify their abundance. Of the regions, by far the largest numbers of thrips were recorded from Canterbury (mean number of thrips per inflorescence from the raw data=48.6, 9.3, 9.4 and 6.4 for Canterbury, Auckland, Hawke's Bay and Marlborough, respectively). Of a subsample of 15% (536 thrips) identified, all but one were New Zealand flower thrips females (NZFT, Thrips obscuratus). The largest numbers of thrips were measured on the windward sides of three out of four vineyards sampled. The presence of thrips eggs and larvae suggests that grape vines are breeding hosts for NZFT, but further research is now needed on the thrips’ life cycle and its distribution and numbers in New Zealand vineyards in order to determine the risk this potential pest presents to the wine industry.
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