Viteus vitifoliae (Fitch)
Dactylosphaera vitifoliae Fitch, Viteus vitifolii (Shimer)
Insecta, Homoptera, Phylloxeridae .
Grapevine root-aphid, Grape phylloxera
Description, Biology,
Life Cycle,
Damage,
Common Names,
Images
[R]Description
- It is the radicicolous forms (living on roots) of this American Aphid which are important in Europe.
At first, the radicicolous females are ovoid shaped, with a yellowish to yellow-green colour, 0.35 mm long (*) . When full grown, they reach 1.35 mm. Each lays more than 800 eggs which measure 0.32 x 0.16 mm.
- 5 to 6 generations of radicicolous viviparous, virginoparous females follow one another in the year.
- At the beginning of summer, they produce winged sexupares, characterised by a slender yellow-green or ochrous body with the head fused to the thorax. These individuals are capable of flying short distances but wind migration occurs, sometimes for more than 30 km.
- The sexupares produce male and female forms. The males are minute (0.28 mm) and apterous; the light yellow females are twice as large. They do not feed and have no mouthparts.
- The female lays one single olive green or brown egg measuring 0.27 x 0.13 mm, the winter egg, in cracks on the two- or three-year-old wood of the vine plants.
- In spring, at the time of the sprouting of vine, the winter egg hatches, producing the galligenous, apterous foundatrix, 1 to 2 mm long.
- With the help of its piercing mouthparts the fundatrix feeds the upper side of the leaf, initiating a pea-sized gall in which it takes shelter and starst laying up to 1,200 eggs (*) . These eggs hatch 8 to 10 days later, freeing the fundatrigeniae, gall-forming and apterous. 4 or 5 generations of these "gallicolae" follow one another during the vegetative period (*) .
- Some of them, the "neogallicicolae-radicicolae", move towards the roots where they undertake an underground rhyzophagous life as "radicicolae" (*) .
- Host plant: vine.
- The European vine, Vitis vinifera, is very sensitive to this pest (less so when it grows in sand). The American Vitis and their hybrids with V. vinifera are more or less resistant (the mechanism is still litle known).
[R]Life Cycle
- The complete life-cycle - as described (briefly) above - is in principle possible only on the American vine.
- In Europe, the pest perpetuates itself in the form of radicicolae. Sometimes, galls appear on the leaves. The formation of sexupares is very rare.
[R]Damage
- The radicicolae by feeding on young roots and the radicles cause the formation respectively, of tuberosities and nodosities (*) . These become infected hastening the death of the vine.
- The grapevine root-aphid was unfortunately imported from the United States into Europe towards the middle of the XIXth century, with different rooted American Vitis plants. In France, in 1879, it caused the destruction of 1.2 million hectares. The answer to the problem was found through the grafting of the French varieties onto American stocks.
[R]Common Names
DE: Reblaus ES: Filoxera FR: Phylloxéra de la vigne IT: Fillosear della vite PT: Filoxera GB: Grape phylloxera, Grapevine root-aphid
[R]
Images
- Viteus vitifoliae (Fitch) (Coutin R. / OPIE)
Damage on shoot of vine - Viteus vitifoliae (Fitch) (Coutin R. / OPIE)
leaf galls On the underside of a leaf.
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- Viteus vitifoliae (Fitch) (Coutin R. / OPIE)
Colony in a gall The gall was opened to show a female, eggs and nymphs which have a darker colour.
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- Viteus vitifoliae (Fitch) (in Balachowsky & Mesnil)
Distortion of roots of vine Root-caps distorted by individuals feeding on roots.
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- Viteus vitifoliae (Fitch) (in Bonnemaison)
Adults a: living on root (June) ; b: living on gall (June).
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- Viteus vitifoliae (Fitch) (in Balachowsky & Mesnil)
Complete life cycle a: winter egg; b: nymph newly produced by the fundatrix; c: fundatrix laying eggs; d: nymph produced by the gallicolous virgin; e: gallicola ; f: nymph of gallicola; g: nymph of radicicola; h: radicicolous virgin; i: radicicolous nymph; j: radicicolous virgin; k: radicicolous nymph ; l: neoradicicola ; m: final nymphal stage of sexupara; n: winged sexupara; o: male egg; p: female egg; q: male nymph; r: female nymph; s: mating male and female adults.
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