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Origin and the situation in South / Central Europe:
Horse-chestnut leafminer Cameraria ohridella Deschka et Dimic (Lepidoptera:
Gracillariidae) is presently the most dangerous pest of horse-chestnut,
Aesculus hippocastanum (L.), in South and Central Europe. This pest gradually
radiated (Tomiczek and Krehan, 1998) from the original place
of occurrence located in Macedonia (Deschka and Dimic, 1986) to
Austria (Puchberger, 1990), Hungary (Szaboky,
1997), Germany (Kraus, 1996), Slovakia and the Czech Republic
(Skuhravy, 1998). C. ohridella can have up to four
generations a year and the infested trees are usually completely defoliated at the
end of the season. When trees are defoliated for several consecutive years this can r
esult eventually in tree death, which may greatly effects the environment in urban
areas.
The situation in the Czech Republic:
The miner went to the Czech Republic (South Moravia) in 1993 from Austria. Today,
C. ohridella occurs in all regions of the Czech Republic and for example last two
years all chestnut trees in Prague were heavily infested. The dramatic appearance of
the damaged leaves has attracted lot of public interests and during the fall 1998 many
municipal authorities organized racking of the leaves, their composting or burning in
communal incinerator in Malesice.
Perspectives:
Last year, in 1998, the miner reached Bonn and the moth is expected to infest
Belgium, Holland, and northern part of France in 1999 year. We can predict that all
temperate part of the continental Europe will be infested in few more years.
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