Arthropod pests and their management

In the present chapter, the first part deals with pomegranate integrated pest management (which involves chemical, cultural, physical and biological control methods), followed by a description of the main pests in relation to their potential economic importance worldwide and grouped according to the part of the plant attacked (foliage, flowers, buds, fruits, branches and trunk, and the root system). These include foliage, twig and shoot pests (Hemiptera) such as citrus flatid planthopper (Metcalfa pruinosa), whiteflies (Aleyrodidae), aphids, mealybugs (Pseudococcidae) and mites; trunk, branch and stem pests such as bark-eating caterpillars (Indarbela quadrinotata), stem borer beetles (Celosterna scabrator and the black borer Apate monachus), shot hole borer (Xyleborus perforans and X. fornicatus); fruit pests including thrips, leaf-footed plant bugs (Leptoglossus spp.), Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata), carob moth (Apomyelois (=Ectomyelois) ceratoniae), common guava blue or anar butterfly (Deudorix spp.), dried fruit beetles or sap beetle (Carpophilus spp.), honeydew moth and false codling moth (Cryptoblades gnidiella and Thaumatotibia leucotreta); root pests such as white grub (Polyphylla olivieri) and root-knot nematodes. Information is also given on their identification, distribution, biology, ecology, hosts, crop damage, and survey methods.