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Insecta, Coleoptera, Rhynchitidae .

Apple fruit weevi, Apple fruit rhynchites

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

[R]Biology
- Host plants: apple, plum.
- Adult: it overwinters under bark flakes and various other shelter and becomes active early in the spring. It feeds by biting the buds, the shoots, the flowers and especially the young fruitlets (*) .
Average fecundity, 20 eggs. These are deposited individually in the fruitlets at the bottom of a small cell that the insect forms with its rostrum (*) ; then the female partially gnaws the peduncle, which reduces sap circulation.
- Larva: it develops during the summer in the fruit which drops prematurely; in autumn, it leaves the fruit and pupates in the ground.

[R]Life Cycle
- 1 generation per year.

[R]Damage
The feeding punctures of the adult cause a marked deformation of the fruit (*) . In addition, the fruitlets containing a larva, and of which the peduncle has been partly cut by the female during egg laying, drops prematurely.

[R] Images

1. Coenorhinus aequatus (L.) (Coutin R. / OPIE)
   Adult on an apple leaf
2. Coenorhinus aequatus (L.) (Coutin R. / OPIE)
   Healed bite marks caused during spring feeding
3. Coenorhinus aequatus (L.) (Coutin R. / OPIE)
   Growth defects The cross-section of the apple shows the location of the spring feeding bites.
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4. Coenorhinus aequatus (L.) (Coutin R. / OPIE)
   Egg in an apple frutlet Surface cross-section of the epidermis showing the oviposition gallery and egg.
   .