BLACK-WALNUT CURCULIO - PATTERNS OF NUT DAMAGE IN A PLANTATION ENVIRONMENT

Data on curculio-caused nut mortality have been collected since 1985 t o assess the impact of this nut predator on black walnut trees grown i n a plantation environment. These data have been analyzed to investiga te spatial and temporal patterns of curculio damage. Curculio damage w as independent of nut cluster height or cardinal direction within the crowns of young, nut-bearing black walnut trees, and was greater in pa rts of a walnut planting that bordered a stand of native hardwoods tha n in a part remote from the stand. Nut losses caused by the curculio w ere consistently higher in an upland versus a bottomland planting, alt hough the differences were not significant during most years of the st udy. Nut mortality caused by the curculio differed among years of the study and was negatively correlated with annual nut abundance.