First Record ofEllimenistes laesicollis(Coleoptera: Curculionidae) as a Garden Pest in the Western Cape, South Africa

Abstract

Ellimenistes laesicollis Fahraeus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Entiminae: Embrithini) is a rather small (4-5 mm long), grey weevil (Fig. 1) that was described in 1871 from material collected by A.J.A. Wahlberg during his visit to southern Africa (1838-1845). It remained unnoticed for many years until Keetch (1973) recorded it as a pest of arabica coffee (Coffee arabica) in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and called it the grey coffee snout beetle. The adult beetles were found to feed on the peduncle (stalk) of young coffee fruit which abort as a result, causing yield losses of up to 40%. The beetles also eat the soft succulent suckers, which snap. They eat cavities into green berries and into the stalk of more mature fruit, causing the fruit to fall, and damage flowers and leaves. They mainly attack young and newly planted coffee, but can also damage mature trees (Keetch et al. 1974;Annecke & Moran 1982). Keetch (1973) found it onvarious other plants such as Bidens pilosa (blackjack), water grass (Cyperus sp.), Grevillea robusta (silky oak) and sugarcane; he mentions that it is apparently of no economic significance on sugarcane. Schoeman (2001), however, called it the sugar cane snout beetle and mentioned that he had observed it feeding on the epidermis of banana in the Eshowe region, KZN, where it led to severe downgrading of the fruit. Schoeman (2009, 2015) recorded it as a pest of macadamia. In 2007 and 2008 he observed substantial damage on recently planted macadamia trees in the Stanger (now KwaDukuza) region of KZN and large infestations on mature trees in the Empangeni area of the same province. He also observed it in 2008 on macadamia in the Chipinge area of eastern Zimbabwe. It is also listed as a defoliator pest during the establishment of wattle and eucalypt seedlings (Govender 2002, 2007) and as a pest of tea (Annecke & Moran 1982).