Abstract:

As an important source to alleviate poverty in many provinces, passion fruit is an emerging industry in Hainan province. With increasing growing areas of passion fruits, diseases and pests have exerted a noticeable adverse effect in the industry. Due to the lack of basic research on the investigation and identification of passion fruit diseases and pests, many passion fruit growers have insufficient or incorrect identification on the diseases and pests in the field, which affects the control effect of passion fruit diseases and pests. Investigations and identifications were conducted in Danzhou, Ledong, Tunchang, Wenchang, Sanya, Dongfang, Baoting, Baisha and Haikou from 2019 to 2021 to clarify the species of diseases and pests of passion fruit in Hainan plantations and the study also analyzed their characteristics. The results of investigation and identification showed that there were 11 types of passion fruit diseases, including virus disease, stem rot, Anthracnose, scab, blight, gray mould, fruit rot, Brown spot, Sooty mould, Algal leaf spot and Magnesium deficiency, of which virus disease and stem rot were the major diseases with damage degrees of grade 4 and 3 respectively, anthracnose and scab also caused serious damages on passion fruit with the same damage degree of grade 2, and other diseases caused minor damages. 28 passion fruit pests were identified, including Thrips hawaiiensis, Scirtothrips dorsalis, S. rubrocictus, Megalurothrips usitatus, Echinothrips americanus, Lirioyza sativae, Bactrocera dorsalis, Zeuzera coffeae, Spodoptera litura, Porthesia scintillans, Latoia lepida, Cethosia cyane, Bemisia tabaci, Trialeurodes vaporariorum, Planococcus citri, Maconellicoccus hirsutus, Ceroplastes cirripediformis, Helopeltis theivora, Mansoniella cinnamomi, Nezara viridula, Leptocorisa chinensis, Empoasca onukii, Hemisphaerius lysanias, Hypomeces squamosus, Mylabris cichorii, Epicauta gorhami, Aspidomorpha furcata and Tetranychus cinnabarinus, of which the major pests were T. hawaiiensis and Z. coffeae with the same damage degree of grade 3, S. dorsalis and L. sativae also caused serious damages with the same damage degree of grade 2, and other pests caused minor damages. There were three species of mollusca found on passion fruit, namely Bradybaena ravida, B. similaris and an unidentified slug. In this study, the species of diseases and pests in the passion fruit plantations in Hainan were identified for the first time in China, and one passion fruit disease and 24 pests were newly discovered and first reported, which provided technical support for the precise control of passion fruit diseases and pests in Hainan.

Key words: Hainan, passion fruit, diseases and pests, identification, damage