New citrus pest discovered in the Bahamas

Florida's Department of Plant Industry has released a new pest alert on the strikingly colored weevil known as Exophthalmus similis Drury.

 

Two specimens were collected June 15 by entomologist and Nursery Management columnnist Suzanne Wainwright-Evans on Paradise Island, an islet off the coast of New Providence Island, near the city of Nassau. The weevils, ranging in size from 15-31 mm – quite large for an insect of its kind – were feeding on a seagrape tree. Its presence on New Providence places it two-thirds closer to Florida than it was in Jamaica, and reveals the existence of a pathway for its movement.

 

E. similis can be distinguished from all other known Bahamian weevils by its large size (15-31mm) and bold color pattern. The only weevil that is similar in size to E. similis in the Bahamas is Rhynchophorus cruentatus (Fabricius), recorded from Andros Island (Turnbow and Thomas 2008), but it is black and red and without scales.