The false codling moth (FCM), Thaumatotibia leucotreta (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) is an insect pest which represents an important threat to the production and marketing of a wide range of agricultural crops in the African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) countries. The FCM reduces not only the yield and quality of the crop but also as a quarantine insect pest, restricts the trade of susceptible agricultural produce on the international market. In addition, little research has been conducted in the ACP countries on the bio-ecology and sustainable management of this pest, especially on vegetables for export. Thus, action-oriented research aimed at understanding the bio-ecology of this important pest is essential to achieve effective management. Various management interventions against this pest have been used in some parts of the world, especially in South Africa on citrus. Currently, farm sanitation is regarded as the key management strategy. Exploring and improving on other interventions such as Sterile Insect Technique, monitoring and mass trapping of male moths, augmentative biological control, use of bio-pesticides, protected cultivation and cold treatment may help to mitigate the expansion of FCM into other countries, especially in the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization region where it has become a regulated insect pest since 2014. This review discussed the bio-ecology of FCM and highlighted some of the challenges and opportunities for its effective management and its implication for international trade, especially the export of chillies from the ACP countries into the European Union market which requires strict phytosanitary regulations.

Bean thrips, Caliothrips fasciatus, is native to western North America. Once considered a pest of several crops in its native area, its pest status has waned over recent decades. However, due to its habit of aggregating in the navel of navel oranges, bean thrips remains economically important because some countries importing oranges from California have designated it a quarantine pest. Despite continued propagule pressure, bean thrips has never established outside North America. We examined genetic variation in mitochondrial DNA among Californian populations of C. fasciatus and found that potentially two cryptic species are present (supported by Kimura 2-P distances): a common widespread form B and a rarer form A with a very limited distribution. Form B showed strong phylogeographic structure, with many haplotypes having a limited geographic distribution. Inter-population crossing experiments between three geographically isolated populations of form B resulted in the production of some female offspring, indicating a degree of compatibility between these populations of this haplodiploid species. However, substantial outbreeding depression was also detected. A low frequency of offspring production by hetero-population pairs was evidence of pre-mating isolation, while post-mating isolation was also evident in the elevated mortality of fertilized eggs in successful hetero-population crosses. One surprising finding was the total lack of offspring production by virgin females when isolated individually. However, virgin females did produce sons in the presence of other virgin females. A test for the presence of Wolbachia showed that form B was not infected, but that some populations of the rarer form A were.