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Anthonomus pyri Kollar
Anthonomus piri

Insecta, Coleoptera, Curculionidae .

Pear bud weevil, Apple bud weewil

Description, Biology, Life Cycle, Damage, Common Names, Images

[R]Description
- Adult: 4 to 5 mm long, brown slightly reddish; rostrum relatively long and slightly arched. Pronotum with a median line of greyish hair. Fore femora with a strong tooth. Elytra brown with dorsally a whitish transversal band widening to the sides. A small dark brown lump on the third interstice (*) .
- Egg: milky white, pyriform, 0.8 x 0.6 mm.
- Larva: 3.5 mm long, stout, apodous, strongly curved, white; head brown.

[R]Biology
- Host plant: pear and, much more rarely, apple.
- Adult: it emerges in spring and nibbles the petioles, the young leaves and the tree shoots. It moves about generally by walking, but sometimes flies from tree to tree. It passes through a summer diapause, sheltered under the bark on trees or in other varied situations. When its activity resumes, it flies relatively often and feeds especially by nibbling the lower part of the leaf buds.
Laying begins 12 to 15 days after its emergence: the female perforates the flower buds with her rostrum and deposits an egg at the bottom of the cavity (*) . She then obscures the oviposition hole with a yellowish air-hardening substance.
Average fecundity: 12 to 15 eggs.
- Larva: newly emerged larvae feed on the future floral structure inside the bud (*) and then pupate in situ.

[R]Life Cycle
- 1 annual generation.
- The eggs laid in autumn inside the buds hatch at the end of the winter and at the beginning of spring. The larvae develop at the expense of flower buds. The new adults emerge in April-May. They are very active for 5 to 6 weeks. After an aestivation period, activity resumes in September and oviposition occurs. Some beetles may overwinter; they oviposit in the spring.

[R]Damage
- In autumn, the feeding punctures at the base of the leaf buds can reach the woody bunch of fibres and cause partial or total desiccation of the bud.
- The flower buds attacked by the larvae do not open at all or sometimes do so irregularly and desiccate before or at the time of full flowering (*) .

[R]Common Names
DE: Birnenknospenstecher ES: Antonomo del peral FR: Anthonome d'hiver du poirier IT: Antonomo del pero PT: Antónomo da pereira GB: Pear bud weevil, Apple bud weewil

[R] Images

  1. Anthonomus pyri Kollar (Coutin R. / OPIE)
    Female boring an egg-laying hole On a flower bud in autumn.
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  2. Anthonomus pyri Kollar (Coutin R. / OPIE)
    Attacked flower bud In spring ; the bud is slightly enlarged and the trace of the egg-laying sting is visible on each scale.
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  3. Anthonomus pyri Kollar (Coutin R. / OPIE)
    Larva inside a bud Scales have been removed to display the larva which has devoured all the floral parts.
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  4. Anthonomus pyri Kollar (Coutin R. / OPIE)
    Exit holes left by new adults Condition of the buds in spring.
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