Abstract
The European stone fruit yellows (ESFY) phytoplasma disease caused by pathogen ’Ca. Phytoplasma prunorum’ induces serious damages in cherry, sour cherry, peach, and apricot orchards mostly in Europe. Its known vector is the plum psyllid (Cacopsylla pruni). Many articles report on the biology (morphology, taxonomy, life cycle etc.) and the method of transmission of the pathogen by the vector, and the possibilities of their control. This paper reviews our knowledge about the vector, and summarises the results of an inland research carried out in a northeastern Hungarian apricot orchards. Our goal was to show some important data for the farmers or anyone who is interested in this disease and its vector. And give some known method that we can protect our orchards against them to prevent the appearance of the disease. As the psyllid that became infected with the pathogen can hold its infectionous capacity during their lifetime, it is very important to have enough knowledge about their lifecycle, that we can determine the right time and method to control them. We also have to know how to identify them; therefore, this paper lists several important data which can be helpful. The most important keys of identification are their wing color, which dark borwn in the apex and brown is in the remaining part of the forewing. The length of the antennae is also an important factor, since other genuse’s species have longer antennae than twice the width of the head. C. pruni has as long antennae as twice the width of the head. They return to Prunus species in early spring and we have to protect our orhards in this period against them. We have to use preparations with a knock down effect on them to prevent the inoculation of the pathogen into the trees in our orchards.
Highlights
The phytoplasma diseases cause enormous damage in fruit orchards around the world
Our goal was to give some important information about the morphology of the psyllid that farmers can identify them, give important datas about their life cycle to better understand their habits and show informations about the ways that we can protect our orchards against them
Protection methods agains Cacopsylla pruni As we can not cure the trees that are infected by the pathogen, the main method to protect our orchards is to prevent the appearance of the disease
Summary
The phytoplasma diseases cause enormous damage in fruit orchards around the world. the Grapevine Flavescence dorée, FD (Szalárdi et al 2014 ab) in grapevine orchards and the European stone fruit yellows (ESFY) cause increasing damages in Hungary in stone fruit orchards, especially in apricot plantations. The known vector of this disease is the plum psyllid (Cacopsylla pruni, Scopoli 1763) (Carraro et al 1998). C. pruni, naturally infected with ‘Ca. Phytoplasma prunorum’ have been found in several European countries: Italy (Carraro et al 1998), Czech Republic (Fialová et al 2004), Switzerland (Ramel et al 2001), Spain (Laviña et al 2004), Bosnia-Herzegovina (Delic et al 2005), France (Jarausch et al 2001), and Hungary (Viczián et al 2015, Mergenthaler et al 2017). Plum psyllid is a Central-Asian and European species of the genus Cacopsylla (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) (Lautere 1999). It is strictly oligophagus fedding on Prunus spp. and overwintering on conifers (Picea abies, Pinus sylvestris) (Ossiannilson 1992, Hodkinson 2009) and other evergreen plants
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