Phylloxera, An Insect Pest Of The Vine

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phylloxera (Daktulosphaira vitifoliae)

Phylloxera, everyone has heard about the ravages it caused on vineyards in France and throughout Europe from the early 1860s. However, few people know that this scourge that has felled on the vine is due to an insect that gave its name to the damage: phylloxera (Daktulosphaira vitifoliae).

Phylloxera: identity card

Phylloxera is a biting and sucking insect that looks like an aphid. It is very small: between 0.3 mm and 3 mm, and its color varies from yellow to brown. There are two types according to the case of reproduction:

  • Phylloxera with asexual reproduction (or assimilated, because of parthenogenesis): the insects do not have wings, do not exceed 1.4 mm and live either on the leaves or on the roots.
  • Phylloxera with sexual reproduction: these insects do not feed and show a strong sexual dimorphism since wingless males are very small (0.5 mm maximum) while females can measure up to 3 mm and have transparent wings.

It is the phylloxera that feed, so the parthenogenetic forms, which are to be feared. The phylloxera gallicoles, which live on the leaves, suck the leaves which has the consequence of developing galls and yellow foliage but without killing the foot. On the other hand, those who live on roots, radicicolous forms, are the worst since they sting the roots, resulting in wounds that become infected to such a point that these tuberosities weaken the foot that eventually die.

The reproduction of phylloxera

The reproduction of phylloxera is very particular and rather complicated. The late-summer mating between male and female gives rise to the laying of a winter egg that hatched in spring to give life to a female without wings. This larva will descend to the roots and after 3 moults (3 weeks), it will be adult and may lay a maximum of 100 eggs, all females, by parthenogenesis which consists of dividing an unfertilized female gamete. This cycle can be repeated over 5 to 6 generations.

When summer arrives, a new moulting occurs for all these females who become nymphs, and finally winged phylloxera whose eggs will hatch males and females who will live only the time to mate to produce the winter egg. A new annual breeding cycle begins.

phylloxera gallicole that grows on the leaves

As for the reproduction of the phylloxera gallicole, the female lays 600 eggs on average of which will leave larvae which will know 4 moults before becoming adults. This cycle can be repeated over several generations but will remain on the sheets.

Phylloxera today

Phylloxera originally came from the United States, and it was imported to Europe, destroying a huge part of the free-standing vineyard. Three decades will be right for the insect thanks to the replanting of vines from rootstocks of American origin naturally resistant to the pest. This technique has made it possible to save French grape varieties that each have their typicality and character.

Today, few grapes are grafted in France because few were spared by phylloxera in the nineteenth century. They are often vines planted in sandy soil, more resistant to phylloxera because the structure and the fluidity of the sand tends to prevent the insects from going down to the roots because at the slightest movement the sand moves. It goes without saying that the wines produced in these old winners and protected vineyards are worth gold!

Today, phylloxera is no longer to be feared by vine growers who all have grafted vines. But caution is required because nature knows how to accommodate as shown by the phylloxera attack in the United States (California) in the 1990s that concerned rootstocks not resistant enough...

(Credit photo 2: Anita Gould - CC BY-NC 2.0)

Phylloxera, An Insect Pest Of The Vine

FAQ - 💬

❓ What is phylloxera wine?

👉 Phylloxera is a microscopic louse or aphid, that lives on and eats roots of grapes. It can infest a vineyard from the soles of vineyard worker's boots or naturally spreading from vineyard-to-vineyard by proximity. Families and businesses alike lost their vineyards to a microscopic aphid: Grape Phylloxera is a louse.

❓ What damage does phylloxera do?

👉 Plant damage Phylloxera adults and nymphs feed on the grapevine roots. This leads to hook shaped galls developing on root hairs or rounded swellings forming on older roots. The galls hinder root growth, and reduce water and nutrient absorption by the plant.

❓ What caused phylloxera?

👉 It was caused by an aphid that originated in North America and was carried across the Atlantic in the late 1850s. The actual genus of the aphid is still debated, although it is largely considered to have been a species of Daktulosphaira vitifoliae, commonly known as grape phylloxera.

❓ What impact did phylloxera have on the wine industry?

👉 One particular pest, an aphid that came to be known as Phylloxera vastatrix, was especially damaging. This microscopic insect, native to the Mississippi Valley of the eastern United States, practically destroyed all the world's vineyards once freed from its native land.

❓ How does phylloxera damage a vine?

👉 Grape phylloxera damage the root systems of grapevines by feeding on the root, either on growing rootlets, which then swell and turn yellowish, or on mature hardened roots where the swellings are often hard to see. Necrotic spots (areas of dead tissue) develop at the feeding sites on the roots.

❓ Is phylloxera a fungal?

👉 On Vitis vinifera, the resulting deformations on roots ("nodosities" and "tuberosities") and secondary fungal infections can girdle roots, gradually cutting off the flow of nutrients and water to the vine....

Phylloxera
Phylum:Arthropoda
Class:Insecta
Order:Hemiptera
Suborder:Sternorrhyncha

❓ How is phylloxera spread?

👉 By the way, there are many ways that phylloxera can spread. Since our rootstock hybrids are not immune, phylloxera can enter a vineyard on the roots of grafted vines. From there, phylloxera nymphs or crawlers will periodically climb their way up to the soil surface, where they can easily be carried by the wind.

❓ How do you identify phylloxera?

👉 The first signs of a phylloxera infestation in a vineyard are yellowing and stunted growth of individual grapevines (Figure 2). Another sign is an increase in weed growth under an infested grapevine. These symptoms usually appear 1-3 years after the initial infestation.

❓ Why is phylloxera a problem for grape growers?

👉 What is it and why is it such a big deal? Phylloxera is an aphid-like insect (a louse) that feeds on grapevine roots, killing the grapevine. The insect traveled from Eastern North America to Europe, devastating vineyards in the late 1800s.

❓ How do you control phylloxera?

👉 Resistant rootstocks are the only completely effective means for phylloxera control in the most severely affected areas. A pesticide treatment will not eradicate phylloxera populations; the chemical cannot easily penetrate the heavy soils that this pest prefers.

❓ What is the solution to the phylloxera problem?

👉 The only successful means of controlling phylloxera has been the grafting of phylloxera-resistant American rootstock (usually hybrid varieties created from the Vitis berlandieri, Vitis riparia and Vitis rupestris species) to more susceptible European vinifera vines.

❓ What is phylloxera?

👉 Phylloxera ( Daktulosphaira vitifoliae) is an insect pest native to North America. Regrettably, the main Eurasian grapevine Vitis vinifera species is unable to defend itself against it. Consequently, it caused widespread destruction to the vineyards of Europe when it was accidentally introduced in the 19th Century.

❓ What is phylloxera vastratix (Devastator of vines)?

👉 It was described in the 1860s crisis in France as Phylloxera vastratix (devastator of vines), and later found to be the same as the previously described Daktulosphaera vitifoliae or Phylloxera vitifoliae. The insect is a sap sucker feeding on the roots and leaves of grapevines.

❓ How does the vine protect itself from phylloxera?

👉 American vine species (such as Vitis labrusca) have evolved to have several natural defenses against phylloxera. The roots of the American vines exude a sticky sap that repels the nymph form by clogging its mouth when it tries to feed from the vine.

❓ What is phylloxera and how did it affect wine?

👉 After arriving in Europe as a stowaway in the early 1860s – and perhaps slightly earlier – the phylloxera pest is thought to have destroyed half of France’s vineyard area over the next few decades. This naturally prompted despair among winemakers, and other countries were also badly affected, both in Europe and beyond.

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Video: Controlling Grape Phylloxera with Rufus Isaacs.

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