Abstract
The Asian chestnut gall wasp Dryocosmus kuriphilus is a global pest of chestnut (Castanea spp.). It has been spreading in Turkey’s forests and orchards since 2014. This pest imposes a big threat to the Turkish chestnut industry, which is among the top producers in the world. Its gall morphology has been related to pest pressure and host cultivar, thus eventually modulating plant damage with heavy impact on growth and fruit production. We compared gall characters (position on plant organ, ratios, dimensions, volumes, number of larval chambers) in wild Castanea sativa, two local cultivars and a Euro Japanese hybrid. Overall, leaf galls were more common (55.36%), followed by the stem (19.6%) and leaf stipule galls (15.29%). The mean number of chamber and volume value of gall types were 1.52-5.93 and 0.43-2.15 cm3, respectively. The highest values were observed in ‘stem gall’. The more gall formation was observed in the wild chestnut trees and ‘Marigoule’ than the other local varieties.
Highlights
Turkey is one of the main chestnut producing countries in the world
‘Marigoule’) and wild chestnut trees were selected for this study
There were significant differences in terms of gall type ratios, sizes, volumes and chamber numbers depending on the varieties
Summary
Turkey is one of the main chestnut producing countries in the world. Annual nut production is about 60,000 tons. In addition chestnut populations are widely spread in the coastal regions e.g. Black Sea, Marmara, and Aegean Sea Regions. These areas have generous populations of Castanea sativa Mill., with approximately 2,5 million trees. A wide range of genetic variability existed in the populations. Genetic variability exists in nut and tree characteristics, yield, and probably pest and disease resistance, as well as other agricultural traits. Some lethal diseases of chestnut e.g. ink disease (caused by Phytophthora sp.), present since 1940, and later chestnut blight disease (caused by Cryphonectria parasitica, present since 1968) had seriously damaged the chestnut grooves and the annual nut production has decreased significantly, especially in Marmara and Black Sea Regions. Damage has been observed recently in the Aegean Region due to the harmful effects of chestnut blight (Soylu and Mert, 2009)
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