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Geographic distribution of chestnut feeding insects in Greece

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Abstract

Greece has been traditionally considered as a chestnut-producing country; yet, chestnut production has experienced a dramatic decline in the last decades, mainly due to chestnut blight Cryphonectria parasitica and chestnut feeding pests. Though chestnut blight is partially under control, little attention has been granted on chestnut feeding pests in Greece. Two species are described as major pests, i.e., Cydia splendana and Curculio elephas, without any information regarding their distribution. This study aimed to identify species diversity that feed on chestnuts trees using genetic markers and further to obtain insight into their distribution. Besides C. splendana and C. elephas, three additional species were determined namely Cydia fagiglandana, Curculio glandium as well as a Curculio sp. that has never been genetically determined before. The distribution of these species was inhomogeneous in Greece. These results demonstrate clearly the need for a carefully planned pest management approach adapted to the local mixture of chestnut feeding pests of each area rather than one general approach.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank our colleagues from the Forest Research Institute V. Christopoulos, G. Tziros, and Z. Nakopoulou for fruitful discussions and technical support; K. Triantafylloy, D. Kandilaris, and I. Despotakis for their assistance in collecting chestnut populations Dora Aguin Pombo (University of Madeira, Portugal) for providing sequences of chestnut-feeding moths; Alfried Vogler (Natural History Museum of London, U.K.) and Raul Bonal (Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Toledo, Spain) for their valuable help with the unidentified Curculio species: György Csóka and Hirka Anikó for providing us with valuable literature resources: the three anonymous referees and the subject editor who added significantly to the quality of the manuscript with their valuable comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forest Research Institute, NAGREF, Vassilika, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Dimitrios N. Avtzis, Charikleia Perlerou & Stephanos Diamandis

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  1. Dimitrios N. Avtzis
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  2. Charikleia Perlerou
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  3. Stephanos Diamandis
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Correspondence to Dimitrios N. Avtzis.

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Communicated by C. Stauffer

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Avtzis, D.N., Perlerou, C. & Diamandis, S. Geographic distribution of chestnut feeding insects in Greece. J Pest Sci 86, 185–191 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-012-0451-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-012-0451-0

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