Les insectes nuisibles au goyavier (Psidium guajavaL. : Myrtaceae) en Amazonie péruvienne

Abstract

Introduction. The guava tree, Psidium guajava, Myrtaceae, is a native fruit tree of the neotropical area. It is very common in all the intertropical zone and used in agroin- dustry to produce juice, nectar, sorbet, etc. To inventory the pests of the guava tree, a survey was done in different localities of Peruvian Amazonia where this fruit tree develops in a rus- tic, often subspontaneous, way. Materials and methods. Insect larvae and adults were col- lected in Peru on various parts of guava trees. Caterpillars were reared on the substrate cor- responding to their feeding mode. The fruits with larvae were followed in the laboratory until the pupa formation. A specific experiment made it possible to determine the rates of infesta- tion and the number of larvae per fruit of Anastrepha striata and Conotrachelus psidii. The collected insects were identified by taxonomists. Results and discussion. A full amount of 36 species associated with the guava tree were recorded, the most harmful being the dipteran Anastrepha striata Schiner, the coleopteran Conotrachelus psidii Marshall, and the lepi- dopteran Timocratica albella Zeller. A. striata and C. psidii attack the fruit. In one of the plan- tations visited, 56.2% of the fruits were attacked by these two species. Conclusion. Several species presented in this work are mentioned for the first time in Peru and four, new to sci- ence, are in the process of being described, or giving rise to a publication. Peru / Amazonia / Psidium guajava / pest insects / collections / identification Les insectes nuisibles au goyavier (Psidium guajava L. : Myrtaceae) en Amazonie peruvienne.