Stenoma catenifer Walsingham

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 : 41

Stenoma catenifer Walsingham ( Elachistidae : Stenomatinae)

Stenoma catenifer is the most important lepidopteran pest of avocado in the Neotropics ( Wysoki et al. 2002). Although not yet found in California, this species has been recorded damaging avocados in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, México, Panama, Perú, and Venezuela, with crop losses as high as 60–80% ( Hoddle and Hoddle 2008). This pest has demonstrated the ability to invade new areas because of the accidental movement of infested avocado fruit. This situation was realized in 2000 in the Galápagos Islands ( Landry and Roque-Albelo 2003). Stenoma catenifer larvae cause damage similar to those of C. perseana ; larvae of the latter discovered in México in 2002 were initially thought to be those of S. catenifer . Larvae of the two species are separated by the following characters: D2 pinacula on A9 fused dorsally (creating a mid-dorsal saddle) in C. perseana , whereas D2 pinaculum and D1 pinaculum are fused subdorsally in S. catenifer (creating a shared subdorsal pinaculum); L pinaculum on A9 trisetose in S. catenifer , bisetose in C. perseana ; and SV pinaculum on A1 and A7 bisetose in S. catenifer , trisetose in C. perseana . Cervantes (1999) provides a complete setal map and larval description for S. catenifer .