Pacific Pests, Pathogens & Weeds - Mini Fact Sheet EditionMango seed weevil (353)
Pacific Pests, Pathogens & Weeds - Mini Fact Sheet EditionMango seed weevil (353)
Summary
- Widespread distribution: In Oceania, Australia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, New Caledonia, Northern Mariana Islands, Tonga, and Wallis and Futuna. A brown, black or grey seed weevil.
- Eggs laid into slits on fruit, larvae burrow into flesh to find the seed, and later pupate. Fruits fall and after 2 months adults emerge.
- Spread occurs inside infested fruit. Survival in leaf litter and under bark or in seed.
- A damaging 'cosmetic' pest: i) dark (egg-laying) marks on fruit, ii) larvae/pupae and frass in seed.
- Natural enemies: weaver ant, Oecophylla smaragdina.
- Biosecurity: if weevil not present, use 'area freedom' - See FAO Interntaional Standards for Phytosanitary Measures.
- Cultural control: if weevil present, collect fallen fruit/seeds and destroy; ban fruit entering plantations; remove non-commercial trees or spray with insecticides.
- Chemical control: when egg-laying sites seen, spray canopy once or twice (October/November), and when adults emerge (February/March). In Australia, chlorpyrifos and methidathion are used.
Common Name
Mango seed weevil, mango stone weevil, mango weevil
Scientific Name
Sternochetus mangiferae; previously, Cryptorhynchus mangiferae.
AUTHOR Grahame Jackson & Mani Mua
Information from 1CABI Stenochetus mangiferae (mango seed weevil) (2017) Crop Protection Compendium. (www.cabi.org/cpc); and Woodruff RE, et al. (2014) Featured Creatures: Mango seed weevil. UF/IFAS, University of Florida. (http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/fruit/beetles/mango_seed_weevil.htm); and from Mango seed weevil. Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Queensland Government. (https://www.daf.qld.gov.au/plants/fruit-and-vegetables/a-z-list-of-horticultural-insect-pests/mango-seed-weevil). Photo 2 Ken Walker (2005) Sternochetus mangiferae. PaDIL - (https://www.padil.gov.au).
Produced with support from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research under project HORT/2016/185: Responding to emerging pest and disease threats to horticulture in the Pacific islands, implemented by the University of Queensland and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.
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