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Tortricid Moths (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae): Biology, Ecology and Integrated Pest Management
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Tortricid Moths (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae): Biology, Ecology and Integrated Pest Management

A special issue of Insects (ISSN 2075-4450). This special issue belongs to the section "Insect Pest and Vector Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2025 | Viewed by 9855

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Zhen Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Entomology and MOA Key Lab of Pest Monitoring and Green Management, College of Plant Protection, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Interests: integrated pest management; biological control; egg parasitoid; tripartite interactions among plant, virus, and aphid vector; molecular ecology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Tortricid Moths (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), with more than 9400 described species, are the largest family of Microlepidoptera. Many of them are distributed worldwide and are serious pests of crops and forests; some are quarantine pests with a high potential for invading and colonizing new areas. Their larvae normally make damage by rolling or mining leaves, boring shoots or fruits，or making galls, and these hidden habits always result in an unsatisfactory control effect with traditional pesticides.

This Special Issue will welcome original research articles and reviews focusing on monitoring techniques, invasion mechanisms, and management strategies based on study of the biological characteristics, ecological adaptability, and control techniques of Tortricid moths.

Dr. Zhen Li
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Insects is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Tortricid moths
  • monitoring and broadcasting
  • biological characteristic
  • ecological adaptability
  • integrated pest management

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

Jump to: Review

15 pages, 4822 KiB  
Article
Predicting the Current and Future Habitat Distribution for an Important Fruit Pest, Grapholita dimorpha Komai (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), Using an Optimized MaxEnt Model
by Li Huang, Shichao Zuo, Yiqi Huo, Lizong Hu, Zhengbing Wang, Jiahui Zhang, Jin Liu, Weili Ding, Keshi Ma and Mingsheng Yang
Insects 2025, 16(6), 623; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects16060623 - 12 Jun 2025
Viewed by 735
Abstract
The Grapholita dimorpha is one of the significant borer pests that primarily damage plum, pear, and apple trees, often resulting in substantial economic losses in fruit production. However, the potential distribution range of this economically important pest remains poorly understood. In this study, [...] Read more.
The Grapholita dimorpha is one of the significant borer pests that primarily damage plum, pear, and apple trees, often resulting in substantial economic losses in fruit production. However, the potential distribution range of this economically important pest remains poorly understood. In this study, we simulated an optimized maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model to predict the spatiotemporal distribution pattern of G. dimorpha and identified its underlying driving factors. The results indicate that suitable habitats, under current bioclimatic conditions, are mainly distributed in eastern China, northeastern China, Korea, and Japan, covering a total of 273.5 × 104 km2. The highly suitable habitats are primarily located in Korea and parts of central Japan, with a total area of 19.8 × 104 km2. In future projections, the suitable area is expected to increase by 17.74% to 62.10%, and the suitable habitats are predicted to shift northward overall. In particular, there are more highly suitable habitats for G. dimorpha in China and Japan compared to their predominance in Korea under current climatic conditions. The bio9 and bio18 contribute 51.9% and 20.7% to the modeling, respectively, indicating that the distribution of G. dimorpha may be shaped mainly by the mean temperature of the driest quarter and precipitation of the warmest quarter. In summary, the distribution range predicted, particularly for regions with highly suitable habitats, poses a high risk of G. dimorpha outbreaks, emphasizing the priority of pest monitoring and management. Furthermore, the key bioclimatic variables identified could also provide crucial reference for pest monitoring. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tortricid Moths (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae): Biology, Ecology and Integrated Pest Management)
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22 pages, 1209 KiB  
Article
Development and Evaluation of Preharvest Thaumatotibia leucotreta Citrus Fruit Infestation Monitoring for Inclusion in a Systems Approach
by Sean D. Moore, Tamryn Marsberg, Mellissa Peyper, Luke Cousins, Marcel van der Merwe, Guy Sutton, Sonnica van Niekerk and Vaughan Hattingh
Insects 2025, 16(6), 589; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects16060589 - 3 Jun 2025
Viewed by 348
Abstract
Thaumatotibia leucotreta, an important citrus pest in southern Africa, is subject to phytosanitary regulations for certain export markets. A systems approach has been developed as an alternative to standalone postharvest disinfestation methods, integrating multiple risk mitigation steps, including preharvest infestation monitoring. This [...] Read more.
Thaumatotibia leucotreta, an important citrus pest in southern Africa, is subject to phytosanitary regulations for certain export markets. A systems approach has been developed as an alternative to standalone postharvest disinfestation methods, integrating multiple risk mitigation steps, including preharvest infestation monitoring. This study aimed to validate an existing preharvest monitoring protocol based on fallen fruit collected under designated data trees and to develop a novel monitoring system based on sampling of sanitation fruit. Monitoring was conducted in seven Navel orange orchards (N = 7 each year) during the 2021 and 2022 seasons, representing high and low infestation levels, respectively. Infestation levels were assessed over 11–12 weeks by inspecting fruit beneath four sets of five trees and all sanitation fruit collected per orchard. The new system, which involves inspecting a 100-fruit sample per orchard, was compared with the previous method. While the five-tree protocol tended to overestimate infestation, it remained effective. The sanitation-fruit sampling approach accurately reflected orchard-level infestation, with a 100-fruit sample sufficient for orchards as large as 20 hectares. Although random sampling is recommended, it was not essential for effectiveness. These results support the use of the new monitoring procedure in the systems approach for citrus exports for T. leucotreta risk mitigation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tortricid Moths (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae): Biology, Ecology and Integrated Pest Management)
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10 pages, 1854 KiB  
Article
Cost-Effective Monitoring of Spruce Budworm Larvae
by Marc Rhainds and Pierre Therrien
Insects 2025, 16(2), 108; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects16020108 - 22 Jan 2025
Viewed by 835
Abstract
The spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana Clem. (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), is the most severe defoliator of balsam fir (Abies balsamea) in eastern Canada and northeast U.S.A. A large budworm outbreak is currently underway in the province of Québec, with 10.5 million hectares defoliated [...] Read more.
The spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana Clem. (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), is the most severe defoliator of balsam fir (Abies balsamea) in eastern Canada and northeast U.S.A. A large budworm outbreak is currently underway in the province of Québec, with 10.5 million hectares defoliated in 2023, up 14.1% from the year before. Populations of budworms are controlled using management guidelines of Forest Protection Strategy (FPS); the approach aims at killing defoliating larvae with aerial application of microbial insecticide, with the objective to limit defoliation and prevent tree mortality. The decision to treat/not treat a given forest block is based, in part, on local density of overwintering second instars (L2) collected at ca. 600 sampling points each year across the entire province at a cost of CAD 350 for three branches per site; the threshold for FPS (TFPS) corresponds to 20 L2/branch. Aerial defoliation maps also guide management decisions because FPS generally target areas within or in the vicinity of defoliated forest stands. Budworm abundance rapidly declines with distance to aerial defoliation (in km), to the extent that larval density rarely attains TFPS outside the core range of FPS (>15 km from defoliation). A cost-effective monitoring approach is proposed whereby forest blocks outside the core range of FPS are sampled every second year (as opposed to every year), representing a potential economy of CAD 40,000 annually. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tortricid Moths (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae): Biology, Ecology and Integrated Pest Management)
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16 pages, 3096 KiB  
Article
Limited Differences in Insect Herbivory on Young White Spruce Growing in Small Open Plantations and under Natural Canopies in Boreal Mixed Forests
by Allison Pamela Yataco, Sabina Noor, Miguel Montoro Girona, Timothy Work and Emma Despland
Insects 2024, 15(3), 196; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects15030196 - 15 Mar 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3673
Abstract
In managed boreal forests, both plantations and natural regeneration are used to re-establish a cohort of conifer trees following harvest or disturbance. Young trees in open plantations generally grow more rapidly than under forest canopies, but more rapid growth could be compromised by [...] Read more.
In managed boreal forests, both plantations and natural regeneration are used to re-establish a cohort of conifer trees following harvest or disturbance. Young trees in open plantations generally grow more rapidly than under forest canopies, but more rapid growth could be compromised by greater insect damage. We compared insect damage on white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss, Pinaceae) growing in plantations with naturally regenerated trees under mature forest canopies in boreal forests (Québec, Canada). We selected ten sites in the naturally regenerated forest and in small, multispecies plantations and sampled ten young trees of 2.5–3 m (per site) in late summer 2020 and again in early and late summer 2021. We compared overall rates of herbivory, galls (adelgids), damage by the spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana, Clemens), and defoliation from sawflies. Overall, insect herbivory damage remained at similarly low levels in both habitats; an average of 9.3% of expanding shoots were damaged on forest trees and 7.7% in plantation trees. Spruce budworm damage increased from 2020 to 2021 and remained higher in under-canopy trees, but damage rates were negligible at this early stage of the outbreak (1.5% in forest vs. 0.78% of buds damaged on plantation trees). While damage due to galls was higher in plantations, the overall low level of damage likely does not pose a significant impact on the growth or mortality of young trees. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tortricid Moths (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae): Biology, Ecology and Integrated Pest Management)
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Review

Jump to: Research

24 pages, 2660 KiB  
Review
Mass Trapping Lepidopteran Pests with Light Traps, with Focus on Tortricid Forest Pests: What If?
by Marc Rhainds
Insects 2024, 15(4), 267; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects15040267 - 12 Apr 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2619
Abstract
The management of Lepidopteran pests with light traps (LTs) is often achieved by luring adults to death at light sources (light trap-based mass trapping, or LTmt). Large-scale LTmt programs against agricultural pests initiated in the late 1920s in [...] Read more.
The management of Lepidopteran pests with light traps (LTs) is often achieved by luring adults to death at light sources (light trap-based mass trapping, or LTmt). Large-scale LTmt programs against agricultural pests initiated in the late 1920s in the United States were phased out in the 1970s, coinciding with the rise of pheromone-based management research. The interest in LTmt has surged in recent years with the advent of light emitting diodes, solar power sources, and intelligent design. The first step in implementing LTmt is to identify a trapping design that maximizes the capture of target pests and minimizes the capture of non-target beneficial insects—with a cautionary note that high captures in LTs are not equivalent to the feasibility of mass trapping: the ultimate objective of LTmt is to protect crop plants from pest damage, not to trap adults. The captures of egg-carrying females in light traps have a greater impact on the efficiency of LTmt than the captures of males. When LTmt is defined as a harvesting procedure, the biomass of females in LTs may be viewed as the best estimator of the mass trapping yield; biomass proxy has universal application in LTmt as every living organism can be defined on a per weight basis. While research has largely focused on agricultural pests, an attempt is made here to conceptualize LTmt as a pest management strategy in forest ecosystems, using spruce budworm as a case study. The mass trapping of female budworms is impossible to achieve in endemic populations due to the large spatial scale of forest landscapes (implying the deployment of a prohibitively large number of LTs); in addition, ovipositing female budworms do not respond to light sources at a low density of conspecifics. The light-based mass trapping of female budworms may provide a realistic management option for geographically isolated forest stands heavily infested with budworms, as a tool to prevent tree mortality. Somehow unexpectedly, however, one factor obscuring the feasibility of LTmt is as follows: the complex (‘unknowable’) economic valuation of forest stands as opposed to agricultural landscapes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tortricid Moths (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae): Biology, Ecology and Integrated Pest Management)
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