9
From forest to plantation? Obscure articles reveal alternative host plants for the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) FERNANDO E. VEGA FLS 1 *, AARON P. DAVIS FLS 2 and JULIANA JARAMILLO 3,4 1 Sustainable Perennial Crops Laboratory, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Building 001, BARC-W, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA 2 Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AB, UK 3 Institute of Plant Diseases and Plant Protection, University of Hannover, Hannover, Germany 4 International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), Nairobi, Kenya Received 22 February 2012; revised 28 March 2012; accepted for publication 28 March 2012The coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae), is the most devastating insect pest of coffee throughout the world. The insect is endemic to Africa but can now be found throughout nearly all coffee-producing countries. One area of basic biology of the insect that remains unresolved is that of its alternative host plants, i.e. which fruits of plants, other than coffee, can the insect survive and reproduce in. An in-depth survey of the literature revealed an article by Schedl listing 21 genera in 13 families in which the insect was collected, mainly in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This overlooked reference, together with information provided in other early articles, suggests that H. hampei is polyphagous, and could provide, if confirmed in the field, critical information on the evolution of this insect’s diet, ecology and host range. © 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, ••, ••–••. ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: Coffea – ecology – evolution – insect host range – speciation. INTRODUCTION The coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari, 1867) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolyti- nae), an insect endemic to Africa (Vega et al., 2009; Gauthier, 2010), was first reported in exported coffee (Coffea L.) seeds (‘beans’) by Ferrari (1867), described as Cryphalus hampei. It was first collected in the field in 1897 in Mount Coffee, Liberia, classified as Stepha- noderes cooki (Hopkins, 1915), which subsequently became a synonym for H. hampei (Schedl, 1959; Wood, 2007). In 1901 it was reported as a pest of Coffea canephora Pierre ex. A. Froehner in the Repub- lic of Congo (Fleutiaux, 1901), and ever since the insect has disseminated throughout nearly all coffee- producing countries in the world, and has become the most devastating insect pest of the two commer- cial Coffea species, C. arabica L. and C. canephora, causing an estimated $500 million in losses yearly (Vega, Franqui & Benavides, 2002). Hypothenemus hampei has a cryptic life cycle, with an adult female boring a hole in the coffee berry (botanically known as a drupe) and then a tunnel in the endosperm (i.e. the major component of a coffee seed), in which eggs are laid. Upon hatching, larvae commence to feed on the endosperm, thereby produc- ing small galleries throughout the seed, reducing the yield and quality of the marketable product. To com- plicate matters, there is sibling mating inside the berry, and once adult females emerge from the berry, they are already inseminated and ready to oviposit in other berries. The cryptic life cycle inside the berry makes the insect quite difficult to control by both chemical and biological methods. The use of biological control agents such as parasitoids, predators, and fungal entomopathogens is a pest management alter- native that has been practiced in several countries (Jaramillo, Borgemeister & Baker, 2006; Vega et al., *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, ••, ••–••. With 1 figure © 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, ••, ••–•• 1

From forest to plantation? Obscure articles reveal alternative host plants for the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

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From forest to plantation? Obscure articles revealalternative host plants for the coffee berry borer,Hypothenemus hampei (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

FERNANDO E. VEGA FLS1*, AARON P. DAVIS FLS2 and JULIANA JARAMILLO3,4

1Sustainable Perennial Crops Laboratory, United States Department of Agriculture, AgriculturalResearch Service, Building 001, BARC-W, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA2Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AB, UK3Institute of Plant Diseases and Plant Protection, University of Hannover, Hannover, Germany4International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), Nairobi, Kenya

Received 22 February 2012; revised 28 March 2012; accepted for publication 28 March 2012bij_1912 1..9

The coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae), is the most devastatinginsect pest of coffee throughout the world. The insect is endemic to Africa but can now be found throughout nearlyall coffee-producing countries. One area of basic biology of the insect that remains unresolved is that of itsalternative host plants, i.e. which fruits of plants, other than coffee, can the insect survive and reproduce in. Anin-depth survey of the literature revealed an article by Schedl listing 21 genera in 13 families in which the insectwas collected, mainly in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This overlooked reference, together with informationprovided in other early articles, suggests that H. hampei is polyphagous, and could provide, if confirmed in thefield, critical information on the evolution of this insect’s diet, ecology and host range. © 2012 The Linnean Societyof London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, ••, ••–••.

ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: Coffea – ecology – evolution – insect host range – speciation.

INTRODUCTION

The coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei(Ferrari, 1867) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolyti-nae), an insect endemic to Africa (Vega et al., 2009;Gauthier, 2010), was first reported in exported coffee(Coffea L.) seeds (‘beans’) by Ferrari (1867), describedas Cryphalus hampei. It was first collected in the fieldin 1897 in Mount Coffee, Liberia, classified as Stepha-noderes cooki (Hopkins, 1915), which subsequentlybecame a synonym for H. hampei (Schedl, 1959;Wood, 2007). In 1901 it was reported as a pest ofCoffea canephora Pierre ex. A. Froehner in the Repub-lic of Congo (Fleutiaux, 1901), and ever since theinsect has disseminated throughout nearly all coffee-producing countries in the world, and has become themost devastating insect pest of the two commer-cial Coffea species, C. arabica L. and C. canephora,

causing an estimated $500 million in losses yearly(Vega, Franqui & Benavides, 2002).

Hypothenemus hampei has a cryptic life cycle, withan adult female boring a hole in the coffee berry(botanically known as a drupe) and then a tunnel inthe endosperm (i.e. the major component of a coffeeseed), in which eggs are laid. Upon hatching, larvaecommence to feed on the endosperm, thereby produc-ing small galleries throughout the seed, reducing theyield and quality of the marketable product. To com-plicate matters, there is sibling mating inside theberry, and once adult females emerge from the berry,they are already inseminated and ready to oviposit inother berries. The cryptic life cycle inside the berrymakes the insect quite difficult to control by bothchemical and biological methods. The use of biologicalcontrol agents such as parasitoids, predators, andfungal entomopathogens is a pest management alter-native that has been practiced in several countries(Jaramillo, Borgemeister & Baker, 2006; Vega et al.,*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]

Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, ••, ••–••. With 1 figure

bs_bs_banner

© 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, ••, ••–•• 1

2009), and yet the insect continues to pose a formi-dable challenge to coffee growers throughout theworld.

The natural habitats of C. arabica and C. cane-phora are the humid, evergreen forests of Africa(Davis et al., 2006): the former is a high-altitudespecies (900–2000 m a.s.l.) of south-western Ethiopiaand the surrounding regions; the latter is a predo-minately lowland plant (50–1500 m a.s.l.) foundthroughout much of tropical Africa, west of the RiftValley (Davis et al., 2006). One aspect of paramountimportance in dealing with the basic biology ofH. hampei has been determining its alternative hostplants in Africa, i.e. are there plants other thanC. arabica and C. canephora that, in their naturalhabitat, are suitable for the reproduction and devel-opment of the insect?

Recently, as part of a project aimed at locatingalternative host plants for H. hampei in Africa, wecompiled a list of Hypothenemus species that havebeen reported in Africa together with the host plantsfor these species, when known. We identified 94Hypothenemus species out of 179 described species ashaving been recorded in Africa (F. E. Vega, unpubl.data). This process required keeping track of oldnames for Hypothenemus species, based on Wood &Bright (1987, 1992), Bright & Skidmore (1997, 2002),and Wood (2007), and consulting the literaturereviewed in these works. During this review, and toour great surprise and excitement, we discoveredthree obscure studies, either not previously cited orundervalued by subsequent researchers working inour field. These works have important consequencesfor the study of alternative hosts of H. hampei.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Three articles have revealed important aspects of thebiology of the coffee berry borer: Beille (1925), Ghes-quière (1933), and Schedl (1960). The most significantwas Schedl’s (1960) article, which was found whiletracking records for Hypothenemus species in Africa(see previous paragraph), and was cited by Wood& Bright (1987). It appears the importance of thisarticle was not recognized because of its title, Insectesnuisibles aux fruits et aux graines (Insect pests offruits and grains), which does not give any indicationabout its coverage of H. hampei.

RESULTS

The first significant finding we came across was aarticle by Beille (1925), in which he writes:

Le début de la maladie a coïncidé avec la destruction de la forêt;il semble que le Stephanoderes, privé des végétaux sur lesquels

il pullulait, ait trouvé dans les nouvelles plantations de Caf-éiers, des conditions favorable à son évolution. [The onset of thedisease coincided with the destruction of the forest; it appearsthat Stephanoderes (i.e. Hypothenemus hampei), lacking theplants that it frequents, has found in the new coffee planta-tions, conditions that are favourable to his evolution.]

This article is significant because, as far as we know,it is the first mention of plants in the forest beingoriginal host plants for the insect, and ascribes forestdestruction as a contributor to the insect moving intocoffee plantations. Before being commercially planted,C. canephora was endemic to humid, evergreenforests in Africa (Davis et al., 2006), and Beille’s state-ment would require the insect to have used C. cane-phora (or other wild Coffea species) as one of its manyhost plants in the forest, in order to make it plausiblefor the insect to have then been able to exploit coffeeplantations.

The second significant finding comes from an articleby Schedl (1960), in which he reports results of a fieldsurvey he conducted in the Belgian Congo (present-day Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC), togetherwith findings from other scientists. Karl E. Schedl(1898–1979) was a world-renowned bark beetle tax-onomist who published 342 articles dealing with barkbeetle taxonomy (Wood & Bright, 1992). What isquite striking about Schedl’s (1960) article is thatH. hampei was recovered from 20 plant genera (otherthan Coffea) in 13 families (Table 1). Some examplesof damaged fruits presented by Schedl (1960) areshown in Figure 1. The valid name for the coffeeberry borer at the time of publication was Stephano-deres hampei, and what Schedl (1960) reports asStephanoderes punctatus was later re-classified asH. hampei by Wood (1972). Concerning H. hampei,Schedl (1960: 13) writes:

Il est intéressant, du point de vue biologique, de noter que,d’après les recherches faites par l’auteur à Yangambi etd’après les données bibliographiques au sujet de Stephano-deres hampei Ferr., il existe dans la forêt ombrophile touteune série d’hôtes naturels du parasite qui lui donnent lapossibilité de se développer indépendamment des plantationsde caféiers. Il est certain que cet insecte est une espèceendémique de la forêt ombrophile; il ne s’établit que secon-dairement dans les plantations de caféiers. [It is interesting,from the biological point of view, to note that after the inves-tigations conducted by the author in Yangambi and after thebibliographical data on the subject of Stephanoderes hampeiFerr., there exists inside the rainforest a series of naturalhosts for the parasite that give it the possibility to developindependently from coffee plantations. It is certain that thisinsect is an endemic species of the rainforest; it becomesestablished only secondarily in coffee plantations.]

Schedl (1960) specifically mentions that the forestplants provide the insect with ‘the possibility to

2 F. E. VEGA ET AL.

© 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, ••, ••–••

Tab

le1.

Pla

nts

inw

hic

hS

ched

l(1

960)

repo

rted

the

coff

eebe

rry

bore

r(H

ypot

hen

emu

sh

ampe

i)as

atta

ckin

gfr

uit

sor

seed

s.S

teph

anod

eres

pun

ctat

us

and

Ste

phan

oder

esh

ampe

iar

esy

non

yms

for

H.h

ampe

i.A

tota

lof

21ge

ner

ain

13fa

mil

ies

are

repo

rted

.Hos

tpl

ant

nam

esin

pare

nth

eses

indi

cate

the

curr

ent

nam

e

Fam

ily

Hos

tpl

ant

(cu

rren

tn

ame)

H.h

ampe

ire

port

edas

:R

epor

ted

loca

tion

Pla

nt

hab

itP

lan

tdi

stri

buti

onP

lan

tE

colo

gyF

ruit

See

dsS

eed

fat

con

ten

t

Ach

aria

ceae

Cal

onco

baaf

f.cr

epin

ian

aS

teph

anod

eres

pun

ctat

us

DR

CTr

ee(r

arel

ya

shru

b),

10(–

25)

mta

ll

Trop

ical

Wes

tan

dC

entr

alA

fric

aH

um

idfo

rest

;85

0–15

00m

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.l.C

apsu

le,

subg

lobu

lar,

(5–)

7(–8

5–6(

–8)

cm,

oran

ge;

wit

hn

um

erou

sse

eds

See

dsan

gula

r,0.

7–0.

0.5–

0.6

mm

Un

know

n.

Oth

ersp

ecie

sin

gen

us

said

tobe

‘oil

rich

Apo

cyn

acea

eP

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carp

atu

bici

na

Sta

pf(P

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carp

apy

cnan

tha

(K.

Sch

um

)S

tapf

)

Ste

phan

oder

esh

ampe

iD

RC

Tree

20(–

30)

mta

ll;

bole

up

to50

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diam

eter

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ical

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tan

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alA

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este

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ast

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ica

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mid

fore

st,

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ary

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seco

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ry;

up

to23

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pose

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ral

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lly

join

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ng,

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ge;

each

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ed

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lon

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ng

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know

n

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pan

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pto

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indi

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er

Trop

ical

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tan

dC

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alA

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este

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ica

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mid

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stan

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na,

prim

ary

and

seco

nda

ry;

up

to20

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le,

deh

isci

ng

by2

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es,

nar

row

lyel

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3.5–

7cm

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mer

ous

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n

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ee,

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5m

tall

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leu

pto

125

cmin

diam

eter

Trop

ical

Afr

ica

Hu

mid

fore

st,

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ary

and

seco

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ry,

up

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pe,

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ne

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ned

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ng

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acid

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5%),

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%)]

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siac

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da

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v.S

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pei

DR

CTr

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ll;

bole

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mor

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diam

eter

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ical

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tan

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entr

alA

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aH

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imar

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dary

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pto

1000

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ry,

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our)

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nel

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edm

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t(s

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and

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)C

ombr

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inal

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ls.

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us

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ee,

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(–50

)m

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le12

0(–1

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eter

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ical

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tan

dC

entr

alA

fric

aH

um

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rest

,pr

imar

yan

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dary

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pto

1000

m.a

.s.l.

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ged

nu

t(i

nde

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cen

t),

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sver

sely

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ng-

elli

ptic

alin

outl

ine,

1.5–

2.5

¥4–

7cm

;1-

seed

ed

See

d~1

.5¥

7cm

Un

know

n

FROM FOREST TO PLANTATION 3

© 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, ••, ••–••

Tab

le1.

Con

tin

ued

Fam

ily

Hos

tpl

ant

(cu

rren

tn

ame)

H.h

ampe

ire

port

edas

:R

epor

ted

loca

tion

Pla

nt

hab

itP

lan

tdi

stri

buti

onP

lan

tE

colo

gyF

ruit

See

dsS

eed

fat

con

ten

t

Leg

um

inos

aeP

has

eolu

slu

nat

us

L.

S.h

ampe

iU

gan

daC

lim

bin

g,tr

aili

ng

orm

ore

orle

sssh

rubb

y,an

nu

alor

pere

nn

ial;

stem

su

pto

4.5(

–8)

mlo

ng

Cu

ltiv

ated

thro

ugh

out

the

wor

ld,

intr

opic

alan

dte

mpe

rate

regi

ons;

intr

odu

ced

from

Trop

ical

Sou

thA

mer

ica

Cu

ltiv

ated

un

der

vari

ous

con

diti

ons

Pod

,[?

deh

isce

nt]

,ob

lon

g,(4

.5–)

5–10

.5(–

13)

¥1–

2(–3

)cm

;2–

4(–5

)-se

eded

See

dski

dney

-sh

aped

torh

ombo

idor

glob

ose,

8–11

¥6–

7m

m

Edi

ble

port

ion

[per

100

g(i

mm

atu

rebe

an)]

:w

ater

66.3

g,pr

otei

n8.

3g,

carb

ohyd

rate

23.1

g,fi

bre

1.0

g~0

.7%

fat

Leg

um

inos

aeC

ath

orm

ion

alti

ssim

um

(Hoo

kf.

)H

utc

h&

Dan

dy(A

lbiz

zia

alti

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aH

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f.)

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un

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us

DR

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ee,

15–3

5m

tall

;bo

leu

pto

80cm

indi

amet

er

Trop

ical

Wes

tan

dC

entr

alA

fric

aH

um

idan

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bhu

mid

fore

st,

prim

ary

and

seco

nda

ryfo

rest

;10

–100

0m

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.l.

Pod

,br

eaki

ng

up

into

1-se

eded

segm

ents

,n

arro

wly

oblo

ng,

10–2

1–2

cm,

red-

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nto

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kish

;u

pto

20-s

eede

d

See

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s-sh

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atte

ned

,0.

6–0.

0.6–

0.7

mm

Fer

men

ted

seed

s:25

.3%

prot

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,16

.9%

fat

and

10%

carb

ohyd

rate

Leg

um

inos

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aesa

lpin

iapu

lch

erri

ma

(L.)

Sw

.

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un

ctat

us

DR

CS

hru

bor

smal

ltr

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up

to5

mta

llP

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bly

nat

ive

totr

opic

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mer

ica

(th

ough

ofte

nal

lege

dto

beA

siat

ic);

wid

ely

cult

ivat

edin

the

trop

ics

Cu

ltiv

ated

un

der

vari

ous

con

diti

ons

intr

opic

alan

dsu

btro

pica

lre

gion

s

Pod

,de

his

cin

gdo

wn

both

side

s,ob

liqu

ely

oblo

ng

toob

lan

ceol

ate,

flat

ten

ed,

6–12

¥1.

4–2.

5cm

;se

vera

lse

eded

See

ds,

obov

ate

orob

tria

ngu

lar,

com

pres

sed,

9–10

¥7–

3m

m

Un

know

n

Leg

um

inos

aeD

iali

um

laco

urt

ian

um

Ver

moe

sen

(D.

engl

eria

nu

mH

enri

q.)

S.h

ampe

i,S

.pu

nct

atu

sD

RC

Tree

8–23

mta

ll,

orsh

rub

1–3

mta

llTr

opic

alW

est

and

Cen

tral

Afr

ica

Hu

mid

fore

st;

900–

1450

m.a

.s.l.

Pod

,in

deh

isce

nt,

±ob

ovoi

d,2.

2–3.

1.4–

2.5

cm;

1-or

2-se

eded

,ea

chem

bedd

edin

afl

oury

pith

See

ds±

len

ticu

lar,

8–13

¥7–

8.5

¥3.

5–5

mm

Un

know

n

Leg

um

inos

aeO

xyst

igm

aox

yph

yllu

m(H

arm

s)L

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4 F. E. VEGA ET AL.

© 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, ••, ••–••

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FROM FOREST TO PLANTATION 5

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6 F. E. VEGA ET AL.

© 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, ••, ••–••

develop independently from coffee plantations’, thusimplying that the insect could possibly complete itslife cycle in these plants (i.e. they could be alternativehost plants). Furthermore, Schedl (1960: 13) alsostates:

Comme le caféier est également cultivé en dehors de la forêtombrophile typique, il y a lieu de considérer que dans cesautres situations, S. hampei Ferr. possède également deshôtes naturels à partir desquels il infeste les plantations decaféiers, même lorsque la lutte menée contre lui est intense.[As coffee is also cultivated outside of the typical rainforest,it should be considered that in these other situations,S. hampei Ferr. also has natural hosts from which it infestsplantations of coffee, even when the struggle against it isintense.]

This indicates that in areas where there is coffeeoutside the vicinity of a rainforest (more correctlytermed humid, evergreen forest), it is possible thatother plants might serve as hosts for the insects.

The article by Schedl (1960) is also significantbecause it suggested that H. hampei could bepolyphagous (‘generalists that exploit plants in morethan one family’; Price et al., 2011). In his landmarkbook on coffee pests, Le Pelley (1968) discussedH. hampei host plants, and after mentioning severalreports of the insect having been found in plantsother than Coffea, he concludes that ‘In none of theabove cases was breeding found in the plants andthey can be considered as occasional food plants only;some of the records may even be erroneous throughmisidentification of the insect found in them’ (p. 118).Interestingly, even though Le Pelley (1968) citesSchedl (1960), he does not include the host plantslisted in that publication. It should be emphasizedthat Schedl’s expertise in bark beetle taxonomymakes it highly unlikely that he would have beenmistaken in identifying H. hampei, and therefore hisidentifications must be considered reliable based onsubsequent work by Wood & Bright (1987, 1992) andWood (2007). The only caveat is that as mentionedabove, what he classified as S. punctatus was laterre-classified as H. hampei by Wood (1972).

Sixteen of the 21 genera listed in Table 1 werereported by Waller, Bigger & Hillocks (2007), based ona subsequent article by Schedl (1961). Waller et al.(2007), in reference to the list of plants they compiled,wrote: ‘. . . it has been assumed by many authors(e.g. Le Pelley, 1968; Hill, 1975) that these are eitherexploratory attacks by the beetle on plants in which itcannot breed or that the beetle has been confusedwith other, similar species of Scolytid’. This meansthat Schedl’s (1960) article was unknown to Walleret al. (2007), as it is not cited by them, and further-more, as mentioned above, their assumption thatthese beetles had been confused with similar species

is unlikely given that Schedl was an expert on theidentification of H. hampei. It is clear then thatSchedl (1960) reveals important information on pos-sible alternative host plants for H. hampei, for whichfield confirmation is now urgently required. At thispoint, it is important to observe that Schedl (1960: 14)mistakenly reported that Roepke (1919) reported hostplants for H. hampei in Indonesia. Roepke (1919: 21–22) actually reported that none of the beetles boredinto the branches of the plant species tested, and thatall of H. hampei had died within 2–3 days in thevarious seeds tested.

The third significant article reporting alternativehost plants for H. hampei was published by Ghes-quière (1933). In this article, he stated:

Le Stephanoderes hampei Ferr. est certainement, au point devue économique, le plus dangereux, il a toujours été considéré,jusqu’a présent, comme un sténomère spécifique des Coffea.Il y a une vingtaine d’années cependant, notre collègueR. Mayné signalait que cet insecte fréquentait, outre le Coffearobusta son hôte habituel, des Hibiscus et diverses Légu-mineuses. Cette assertion mise en doute par d’autres ento-mologistes, est actuellement confirmée par les résultats de nosrecherches sur Cacaoyer, Caesalpinia pulcherrima, et Dialiumlacourtianum. Les récoltes de larves, nymphes et adultes surce dernier, surtout, ne peuvent laisser subsister aucun doute,cette Légumineuse croissait, par bosquets, dans les savanesboisées du Kasai, loin de toute plantation et de galerieforestière quelconque. L’utilisation du D. lacourtianum commeplante-piège serait sans doute à préconiser, il murit ses fruitstardivement en saison sèche, à une époque différente desCaféiers et fournirait en même temps on ombrage léger néces-saire aux plantations équatoriales. [Stephanoderes hampeiFerr. is certainly, from an economic point of view, the mostdangerous, and it has always been considered, until now, likea specific stenomere (old term used in classification ofColeoptera) of Coffea. It has been 20 years since our colleagueR. Mayné (see Mayné, 1914) noted that this insect frequented,in addition to its habitual host Coffea robusta (valid name:C. canephora), Hibiscus and various Leguminosae. This asser-tion, doubted by other entomologists (Ghesquière, (1933),includes a footnote to specify that these doubts by otherentomologists are based on possible mistakes in taxonomicdetermination), is currently supported by the results of ourresearch on cocoa, Caesalpinia pulcherrima, and Dialiumlacourtianum (valid name: D. englerianum). The collection oflarvae, pupae and adults on the latter, above all, can leave nodoubt, that this Leguminosae growing in groves in the wood-lands of the Kasai, away from all plantations and any galleryforest. (Our interpretation of this apparently incomplete sen-tence is that all stages of the insect were found on this plantaway from coffee plantations and the forest, thus indicatingthat the insect does not need coffee or other forest plants tosurvive.) The use of D. lacourtianum as a trap plant should beadvocated because its fruits ripen late in the dry, at a timedifferent from coffee, while providing at the same time thelight shade needed in equatorial plantations.]

FROM FOREST TO PLANTATION 7

© 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, ••, ••–••

Ghesquière’s (1933) article confirms the presence ofother plants on which H. hampei can reproduce.

Habit, distribution, and ecology of the plants listedin Table 1, as well as information of the fruit andseeds, were obtained from the herbarium at the RoyalBotanic Gardens, Kew, and from various literaturesources (Burkill, 1985, 1994, 1997; PROTA, 2012).

CONCLUSIONS

The articles by Beille (1925), Ghesquière (1933), andparticularly Schedl (1960), raise important issues,which if resolved, would greatly expand our knowl-edge of H. hampei. For example, were wild Coffeaspecies the original host plants for the insect in addi-tion to those plants reported by Schedl (1960), and didforest disturbances push the insect towards areaswhere food resources, in the form of C. canephoraplantations, were readily available, resulting in peststatus, as implied by Beille (1925)? To our knowledge,H. hampei is the only insect pest that completes itslife cycle in Coffea seeds, even though eight additionalHypothenemus species have been collected fromCoffea plants: Hypothenemus areccae (Hornung),Hypothenemus crudiae (Panzer), Hypothenemuseruditus Westwood, Hypothenemus grandis Schedl,Hypothenemus liberiensis (Hopkins), Hypothenemusplumeriae (Nordlinger), Hypothenemus seriatus(Eichoff), and Hypothenemus solitarius (Schedl) (F.E. Vega, unpubl. data). Nevertheless, the use of coffeeseeds as food by H. hampei requires biochemicalmechanisms to break down the alkaloid caffeine,known to be toxic to other insects (see Vega et al.,2003).

Our assessment of the species listed by Schedl(1960) shows that many of the proposed alternativehosts for H. hampei have similar biological charac-teristics. The first of these, and one that immedi-ately appears at odds with the Coffea host, is theheight of the plant species listed in Table 1. Fifteenof the 20 (75%) species (i.e. excluding Coffea) canattain a height greater than 15 m; and 13 (65%) aretrees of more than 25 m in height, with severalof these attaining heights between 30 and 45 m(Table 1). Thus, this list includes many canopy treesand canopy emergents. A canopy existence has notpreviously been suggested for H. hampei. Coffeaspecies rarely attain heights of greater than 10 m.Secondly, a large number of the species listedpossess seeds with a high oil/fat content. Eight of the20 species (40%; excluding Coffea, and including twogenera without specific information) are reported tohave seeds with high oil or fat content. This per-centage could be considerably larger, as the oil/fatcontent of many of the listed species are unknown tous. Significantly, the seeds (endosperm) of Coffea are

also rich in fats, having a fat content between 7 and17% (Speer & Kölling-Speer, 2006). This relationshipis, however, by no means universal for the specieslisted by Schedl (1960), as some species, notablyPhaseolus lunatus, are low in oil/fat; we also have aconsiderable quantity of missing data for seed com-position. Thirdly, large seed size figures prominentlyin the list. Thirteen of the 20 species (65%; excludingCoffea, and including two genera without specificinformation) have seeds with at least one dimension(e.g. length or width) greater than 1 cm. For Coffeaspecies reported as hosts of H. hampei (Table 1), theseeds are hemi-ovoid, and usually between 0.9 and1.4 cm long. In summary, a high proportion of thealternative hosts reported by Schedl (1960) are sub-stantial rainforest trees, and the majority havelarge, nutritious seeds capable of providing a worth-while food source for H. hampei. It is also evidentfrom Table 1 that there are three species listed ascultivated and introduced from South America[Caesalpinia pulcherrima (L.) Sw., Phaseolus luna-tus L., and Theobroma cacao L.]. It is clear that in atleast the latter two species (lima bean and cocoa,respectively), H. hampei is not a significant pest, asit would have been widely reported as such for thesesignificant crop species.

Another interesting issue that would need to beelucidated is whether a field survey would reveal theinsect in Dialium englerianum, and if so, whetherthe plant can be used as a trap, as proposed byGhesquière (1933). Finally, another important impli-cation of finding the alternative host plants forH. hampei is that these plants might reveal previ-ously unreported biological control agents (i.e. preda-tors, parasitoids, pathogens) that might be moreeffective in controlling the insect than thosecurrently being used.

Based on the findings presented here, the pursuitof H. hampei in the field in the alternative hostplants listed in Table 1 is being planned, under theleadership of J. Jaramillo, as part of a project fundedby the German Research Foundation (Deutsche For-schungsgemeinschaft). Once these alternative hostplants are located it will be essential to determine ifH. hampei can be found naturally infecting and com-pleting its life cycle in the fruits produced by theseplants. This will be the only way to ascertainwhether these plants do indeed serve as host plantsfor H. hampei, and not as exploratory or temporaryhosts in which reproduction and development doesnot occur. It will also be important to determinewhether H. hampei insects taken from these alter-native plants can complete their development incoffee berries: this information will provide insightson how the insect might have become adapted tothrive on Coffea fruits.

8 F. E. VEGA ET AL.

© 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, ••, ••–••

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank Harry K. Kaya (University of California,Davis) and three anonymous reviewers for theirhelpful comments. We give special thanks to LulúRico-Arce, Legume Specialist at the Royal BotanicGardens, for providing seed information on the Legu-minosae presented in Table 1.

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