Pacific Pests, Pathogens, Weeds & Pesticides - Online edition

Pacific Pests, Pathogens, Weeds & Pesticides

Rose beetle (107)

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Photo 1. Adult rose beetle, Adoretus versutus, about 12 mm long, brown and covered in brown-red hairs.

Photo 2. Adult rose beetle, Adoretus versutus, and its feeding holes.

Photo 3. Adult rose beetle, Adoretus versutus, upper or view of the back.

Summary

  • Narrow distribution. South Asia, Oceania. On bele, cocoa, coffee, ginger, yams and many other crops and weeds. An important pest.
  • Eggs 7-10 cm deep in soil, hatching to C-shaped grubs with orange heads, feeding on roots; adults, dark brown, 12.5 mm long, with grey-white scales.
  • Adults make holes in young to middle-aged leaves at night, often leaving the veins.
  • Cultural control: barriers (coconut fronds, bamboo) around cocoa seedlings; plant cocoa under shade (30-40%); light traps; do not plant near fences of Hibiscus tiliaceous, a preferred host.
  • Chemical control: use synthetic pyrethroids.

Common Name

Rose beetle

Scientific Name

Adoretus versutus

Photo 4. Adult rose beetle, Adoretus versutus, side view.

Photo 5. Yam, Dioscorea alata, with typical damage from rose beetle, Adoretus versutus. The younger, presumably softer, leaves are eaten in preference.

Photo 6. Rose beetle, Adoretus versutus, damage on Hibiscus tiliaceous.

Photo 7. Bele, Abelmoschus esculenta, with typical damage from rose beetle, Adoretus versutus.

Photo 8. Damage to Terminalia catappa (tropical or Pacific almond) by rose beetle, Adoretus versutus.

AUTHOR Grahame Jackson
Information from Waterhouse DF, Norris KR (1987) Adoretus versutus Harold. Biological Control Pacific Prospects. Inkata Press. Melbourne. Photo 1&2 Gerald McCormack, Cook Islands Biodiversity & Natural Heritage (http://cookislands.bishopmuseum.org/). Photo 3&4 Walker K (2007) Adoretus versutus. PaDIL - (http://www.padil.gov.au). Photo 5 Richard Markham, ACIAR, Canberra.

Produced with support from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research under project PC/2010/090: Strengthening integrated crop management research in the Pacific Islands in support of sustainable intensification of high-value crop production, implemented by the University of Queensland and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.

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