The Asiatic apple leaf miner, Phyllonorycter ringoniella (Matsumura), is an important insect pest to apples. We developed a rearing method for P. ringoniella in the laboratory. Overwintering pupae were collected from our apple orchard, and crabapple seedlings were selected as oviposition substrate and food source for the larval development. The mean developmental period was 25.9 ± 0.49 days from egg to adult and the survival rate was 0.387 under 25 ± 1 °C, 65 ± 5% RH and a photoperiod of 14:10 (L:D) h. Mean egg length and egg width were 0.336 ± 0.0043 and 0.259 ± 0.0046 mm, respectively. Mean body length and head width increased from 1.070 ± 0.0245 and 0.180 ± 0.0021 mm in first instar larvae to 5.027 ± 0.0718 and 0.321 ± 0.0021 mm in fifth instar larvae, respectively. The mean weight of the pupae was 0.946 ± 0.0132 mg. The wingspan of male adult (6.280 ± 0.0639 mm) was significantly larger than female (6.040 ± 0.0753 mm). The mean fecundity (56.9 ± 8.58 eggs per female) and longevity (8.2 ± 0.55 days) of females was highest when they were provided with 10% honey solution, followed by 10% sugar, water, and control. The females preferred to lay eggs (56.5 ± 3.84%) near the secondary leaf vein in a leaf. The larval mortality increased linearly (R2 = 0.94) with the number of larvae per leaf. The mortality of pupae increased from 5.6 ± 4.01 to 51.1 ± 9.88% as storage periods at 4 °C increased from 0 to 105 days. The rearing method and its biological characteristics presented in this study will contribute to further studies on this pest insect.
Keywords: Phyllonorycter ringoniella; body size; cold storage; oviposition preference; rearing method.