Archips rosana (L.)
(Sometimes known as Cacoecia rosana L.)
Common name: European leaf roller, the filbert leafroller. Rose Tortrix.
Taxonomic position: Insecta, Holometabola, Lepidoptera, Tortricidae.
Geographic distribution: Cosmopolitan.
Host plants: The pest attacks plants in over 100 species, especially Rosaceae, also some grasses.
Morphology: Head and thorax of adult brown, abdomen grey. Forewings pale brown with 3 darker oblique spots of which the middle one is the largest, hindwings brown-grey with an orange-color apex and fringes. Larvae (caterpillar) about 20 mm long, usually green but their color varies according to diet, with many pale hairs along the body, head dark-brown, thorax covered by a dark-brown plate.
Life history: Females lay an average of 250 eggs in batches of 50-100 on the smooth bark or branches of host trees (apple is a favorite host), the eggs staying in diapause till next spring. The emerging larvae (caterpillars) remain and eat together, feed on the buds and leaves, web and roll them, later gnawing into the flowers and the fruits. They pupate at their feeding sites; the adults, which live for several weeks, appear during spring and early summer; this species is univoltine. The threshold of development was estimated to be around 5-7ºC, and total female development was estimated to be around 520 day-degrees.
Economic importance: Although attacking many crop, A. rosana is mostly a pest of apple and pear, roses and in North America also of hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.). The caterpillars gnaw into and damage the pulp, ovaries and seeds or stones of fruits, which results in corky damage to the apple fruit face, and to premature drop. Leaf curling and deformations, and reduced tree growth may also follow.
Management:
Monitoring: The presence of webbed and/or curled leaves, and of surface feeding damage to the developing fruits are indications of pest presence.
Horticultural methods: Removal of the lower, or weak branches.
Plant resistance: The pest lays considerably fewer eggs on the bark of the Turkish apple cultivar “Misket” as compared to the bark of introduced cultivars.
Chemical control: A pyrethroid and an organophosphate provided good control when applied against the pest’s first stage.
Biological Control: Many hymenopterous parasitoids attack the pest in Turkey, of which the most effective is the braconid Itoplectis maculator (Fabricius). Two species of the egg parasitoid Trichogramma (Trichogrammatidae) were obtained from the eggs of the pest. Control may be obtained with compounds that contain Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).
References
AliNiazee, M.T. 1977. Bionomics and life history of a filbert leafroller, Archips rosanus (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 70: 391-401.
Aydoğdu, M. 2014. Parasitoid abundance of Archips rosana (Linnaeus, 1758) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) in organic cherry orchards. North-Western Journal of Zoology 10: 42-47.
Doğanlar, O. 2007. Distribution of European leaf Roller, Archips Rosanus (L.) (Lep., Tortricidae) egg masses on different apple cultivars. Asian Journal of Plant Sciences 6: 982-987.
Doğanlar, O. 2008. Temperature-dependent development and degree-day model of European leaf roller, Archips rosanus. Journal of Plant Protection Research 48: 63-72.
Kapidani A., Duraj N. 1991. Investigations on the biology and control of the tortricid Archips rosana L. in Albania. Pflanzenschutzbericte 52: 79-88.
Ercan, F.S., Munevver Kodan, M., Oztemiz, S., Rugman-Jones, P. and Stouthamer, R. 2015. Identifying the Trichogramma spp. (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) parasitizing Archips Rosana (L.) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), an important pest of fruit trees in Turkey. Research Journal of Biotechnology 1: 8-11.