Amorbia

Gilligan, Todd M., Brown, John W. & Hoddle, Mark S., 2011, A new avocado pest in Central America (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) with a key to Lepidoptera larvae threatening avocados in California, Zootaxa 3137, pp. 31-45 : 40

Amorbia spp. ( Tortricidae : Tortricinae )

Amorbia cuneana (Walsingham) , the western avocado leafroller, is considered a primary but sporadic pest of avocado in California ( Faber et al. 2010). Its putative synonym, A. essigana Busck , was described as an avocado pest in southern California nearly 80 years ago, and avocado feeding populations may actually represent this “pheromone race” (e.g., Hoffman et al. 1983; Bailey et al. 1986; Bailey et al. 1988). Adults are present from late April to July and again in September to November in central California and year round in southern California (Powell and Opler 2009). Larvae cause damage by feeding on leaves, skeletonizing them in early instars and consuming the entire leaf in later instars. Economic losses occur when larvae web leaves to fruit or feed on the skin of fruit in a cluster, causing cosmetic damage ( Faber et al. 2010).

In Hawaii, the Mexican leafroller, Amorbia emigratella Busck , is considered a pest on a variety of plants, including avocado, although this species is native to México and Central America ( Zimmerman 1978). Larval damage appears similar to that of A. cuneana and also E. postvittana ( Zimmerman 1978) .

An additional species, Amorbia santamaria Phillips & Powell , was reared from avocado in Guatemala by Hoddle and Hoddle (2008).