AN ASSESSMENT OF THE QUARANTINE RISK OF ARMORED SCALE (HEMIPTERA, DIASPIDIDAE) FRUIT INFESTATIONS ON KIWIFRUIT

The nature of scale infestations was characterised for kiwifruit rejec ted for export from a packhouse at Kerikeri and at Whangarei, New Zeal and from 1987 to 1991. Of the total 14 390 scale examined, 8% at Kerik eri and 4% at Whangarei were live mature scale. This stage can liberat e mobile crawlers and is thus the only quarantine risk as all other st ages are sessile. Close examination of the fruit revealed that 51% of fruit had scale infestations, which detract from the appearance of the fruit, 32% had ''acceptable'' scale, 15% had no scale, and 2% had sca le hidden under the calyx. If we assume unacceptable scale contaminate d fruit will be discarded at the grading table for cosmetic reasons, t he live mature scale or quarantine risk of the remaining ''acceptable' ' scale infested fruit reduces to 1.4% at Kerikeri and 0.7% at Whangar ei. The implications of these fisk assessments on the kiwifruit indust ry in New Zealand are discussed.