METAMASIUS-CALLIZONA (CHEVROLAT) (COLEOPTERA, CURCULIONIDAE), AN IMMIGRANT PEST, DESTROYS BROMELIADS IN FLORIDA

Metamasius callizona (Chevrolat), a previously obscure weevil species known from Mexico, Guatemala, and Panama, was discovered in Florida (USA) in 1989. In Mexico and Florida its larvae mine meristemmatic tissue and flower-stalks of epiphytic Tillandsia bromeliads, which they kill. In Florida, populations of Tillandsia utriculata L. are being decimated; the weevils also mine and kill introduced ornamental bromeliads of 12 other genera, including Ananas. Fruits of Ananas comosus (L.) (pineapple) are destroyed. Where they occur in southern Florida, populations of the weevil are now much greater than could be found in Mexico in July 1992. In Florida, M. callizona seems to breed throughout the year. Females deposit eggs singly into slits cut in leaf bases of the host-plants. Fully grown larvae pupate in a fibrous cocoon, and development time from oviposition to adult is approximately 11 weeks in the laboratory. No insect parasitoids of the weevil have been found, but Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo) was found as a pathogen in Mexico.