Hosts of Cactoblastis cactorum
Kristen Sauby
Department of Biological Sciences
Mississippi State University
Last updated: July 3, 2009
Cactoblastis cactorum feeds internally on cladodes and rarely fruit of prickly pear cacti (Mann 1969, Lobos & Ochoa de Cornelli 1997, Stiling 2002) within the subfamily Opuntioideae of the Cactaceae family (Anderson 2001). Cactoblastis cactorum is known to feed on at least 48 species of Opuntioideae, including all of the 12 described Opuntia species within its native range of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil (Mann 1969) as well as all known native and introduced prickly pear species in Florida (Hight et al. 2002, Zimmermann et al. 2004). While C. cactorum was originally reported feeding on flowers of Rhipsalis sp. and Opuntia sp. (Berg 1885), all subsequent known reports of C. cactorum feeding have documented on the vegetative growth (cladodes) and rarely fruit of plants within the subfamily Opuntioideae.
Known host species of C. cactorum and the location where those hosts have been found infested. |
|
Species |
Location of Infestation |
Austrocylindropuntia subulata (Muehlenpf.) |
Australia (Dodd 1940), South Africa (Moran & Zimmermann 1991) |
Consolea corallicola Small |
Florida (Stiling & Moon 2001) |
Consolea moniliformis A. Berger |
Puerto Rico (Garcia-Tuduri et al. 1971) |
Consolea rubescens Lem. |
Puerto Rico (Garcia-Tuduri et al. 1971), Nevis, St. Kitts (Zimmermann et al. 2004) |
Consolea spinosissima Lem. |
Jamaica (Zimmermann et al. 2005) |
Cylindropuntia caribaea (Britton & Rose) |
Dominican Republic (Zimmermann et al. 2005) |
Cylindropuntia fulgida (Engelm.) |
South Africa (Zimmermann et al. 2004) |
Cylindropuntia imbricata (Haw.) |
South Africa (Zimmermann et al. 2004) |
Nopalea Salm-Dyck |
Florida (Sauby et al., submitted) |
Opuntia anacantha var. retrorsa (Speg.) |
Argentina (Mann 1969) |
Opuntia anacantha var. utikilio (Speg.) |
Argentina (Dodd 1940, Mann 1969) |
Opuntia antillana Britton & Rose |
Puerto Rico (Garcia-Tuduri et al. 1971), Dominican Republic (Zimmermann et al. 2005) |
Opuntia aurantiaca Lindl. |
Australia, Argentina (Dodd 1940), South Africa (Pettey 1948) |
Opuntia canterae Arechavaleta |
South America (Dodd 1940, Mann 1969) |
Opuntia cochenillifera (L.) |
Antigua, Dominican Republic, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts (Zimmermann et al. 2005), Nevis (Pemberton & Liu 2007) |
Opuntia dejecta Salm-Dyck |
Australia (Hosking et al. 1988) |
Opuntia delaetiana (F.A.C. Weber) |
Argentina (Dodd 1940, Mann 1969) |
Opuntia discolor Britton and Rose |
Argentina (Mann 1969, Dodd 1940) |
Opuntia elatior Mill. |
Australia (Hosking et al. 1988) |
Opuntia engelmannii Salm-Dyck |
South Africa (Pettey 1948), Antigua, Nevis (Moran & Zimmermann 1984) |
Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) |
Argentina (Dodd 1940, Mann 1969), South Africa (Pettey 1948, Moran & Zimmermann 1984), Hawaii (Fullaway 1954, Moran & Zimmermann 1984), Australia (Moran & Zimmermann 1984), South Carolina (Hight et al. 2002), Florida (Hight et al. 2003), Domincan Republic, Cuba (Zimmermann et al. 2005) |
Opuntia humifusa (Raf.) |
Australia (Dodd 1940), South Carolina (Hight et al. 2002), Florida (Pierce 1995, Johnson & Stiling 1998, Baker & Stiling 2008) |
Opuntia humifusa var. austrina (Small) |
Florida (Sauby, et al., submitted) |
Opuntia humifusa var. ammophila (Small) |
Florida (Sauby, et al., submitted) |
Opuntia jamaicensis Britton & Harris |
Jamaica (Zimmermann et al. 2005) |
Opuntia leucotricha DC. |
Domincan Republic (Zimmermann et al. 2005) |
Opuntia megacantha Salm-Dyck |
Hawaii (Fullaway 1954), South Africa (Monro 1975) |
Opuntia microdasys (Lehm.) |
South Africa (Zimmermann et al. 2004) |
Opuntia monacantha Haw. |
Argentina (Dodd 1940), Mauritius (Greathead 1971) |
Opuntia paraguayensis K. Schum. |
Australia (Hosking et al. 1988) |
Opuntia pilifera F.A.C. Weber |
Dominican Republic (Zimmermann et al. 2005) |
Opuntia polyacantha Haw. |
(Zimmermann et al. 2004) |
Opuntia pusilla (Haw.) |
South Carolina, Georgia (Hight et al. 2002), Florida (Sauby et al., submitted) |
Opuntia quimilo K. Schum. |
Argentina (Dodd 1940, Mann 1969) |
Opuntia repens Bello |
Puerto Rico (Garcia-Tuduri et al. 1971, Zimmermann et al. 2005) |
Opuntia robusta Wendl. |
South Africa (Annecke & Moran 1978) |
Opuntia salmiana J. Parm. |
South America (Dodd 1940, Mann 1969), South Africa (Moran & Zimmermann 1991) |
Opuntia sanguinea Proctor |
Jamaica (Zimmermann et al. 2005) |
Opuntia spinulifera Salm-Dyck |
South Africa (Moran and Zimmermann 1991) |
Opuntia streptacantha Lem. |
Australia (Dodd 1940) |
Opuntia stricta (Haw.) |
Australia (Dodd 1940), Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands (Garcia-Tuduri et al. 1971), Cayman Islands, New Caledonia (Moran & Zimmermann 1984), The Bahamas (Starmer et al. 1988), South Africa (Moran & Zimmermann 1991), Florida (Pierce 1995, Hight et al. 2002), Cuba (Zimmermann et al. 2000), Georgia (Hight et al. 2002), Antigua, Dominican Republic, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Montserrat, Nevis, Saint Lucia (Zimmermann et al. 2005), St. Kitts (Pemberton & Liu 2007) |
Opuntia sulfurea G. Don. |
South America (Dodd 1940, Mann 1969) |
Opuntia taylori Britton & Rose |
Dominican Republic (Zimmermann et al. 2005) |
Opuntia tomentosa Salm-Dyck |
Australia (Dodd 1940) |
Opuntia triacantha Sweet |
Antigua (Simmonds & Bennett 1966, Zimmermann et al. 2005), Florida (Zimmermann et al. 2004), Cayman Islands, Guadeloupe, Nevis (Zimmermann et al. 2005), Mauritius (Moran & Zimmermann 1984), Montserrat (Simmonds & Bennett 1966), Puerto Rico (Garcia-Tuduri et al. 1971) |
Opuntia tuna Mill. |
Jamaica (Zimmermann et al. 2005), Mauritius (Moran & Zimmermann 1984) |
Opuntia x cubensis Britton and Rose |
Florida (Zimmermann et al. 2004) |