BOOK REVIEW

J. E. Pena, J. L. Sharp and M. Wysoki (eds), Tropical Fruit Pestsand Pollinators: Biology, Economic Importance, NaturalEnemies and Control

CABI Publishing, Wallingford, Oxon, 2002, Sterling £85.00, ISBN 0-85199-434-2,438 pp.

Andrew Lack

Published online: 7 December 2006� Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2006

This book consists of 13 unequal chapters by a total of

28 authors and is, fundamentally, a compilation of

information about the invertebrate pests of certain

tropical fruits and how to control them. After an

Introduction the fruits treated are, in order of length,

avocado (71 pp.), tropical citrus (45 pp.), banana (44

pp.), pineapple (39 pp.), passion fruit (29 pp.), litchi

and longan (29 pp.), mango (27 pp.), papaya (26 pp.),

Annona spp. (25 pp.), guava (19 pp.) and minor trop-

ical fruits, comprising durian, mangosteen, rambutan,

carambola and Barbados cherry (16 pp.). A final

chapter discusses quarantine. There are statistics on

where these fruits are grown, quantities and impor-

tance for the economy in each main country. The pests

considered are largely insects, include mites and

nematodes but no vertebrates. Their distributions, life

cycles and effects are described along with a compre-

hensive treatment of control measures, chemical, bio-

logical and integrated pest management from many

countries. Several chapters have extensive lists of pests

in tables, while others treat them in the text, but all the

chapters are well laid out with many headings and

subheadings. There are numerous references for each

chapter.

There are some obvious omissions (e.g., breadfruit,

cucurbits, cocoa) and no real reason is given for this.

The title indicates that it is about pollinators too but

the treatment of pollinators is, to say the least, uneven.

There is a fairly extensive treatment for avocado, a few

pages for passion fruit and Annona, just one page for

mango, one for litchi/longan and nothing for the oth-

ers. This seems poorly thought out and, to be frank,

pollination and pollinator details is another book as

there is a great deal of information on some of these.

The interesting material on pollination that is here gets

lost because it is so patchy. Finally the index is seri-

ously inadequate, though this may not matter too much

since the book is well laid out itself and easy to

navigate.

The book is about pests and how to limit or stop

their infestations, and in this respect has nothing to say

about insect conservation. Pollinators are vital for

some of these crops, but the short sections here are

mainly about honeybees, with brief reference to other

species. As such the message becomes a reiteration of

the rather depressing fact that honeybees dominate the

pollinator fauna over most of the world including many

parts in which they are not native. No indication is

given here about their effects on the native pollinator

fauna.

The book will prove most useful to anyone with an

interest in growing the fruits discussed here, as it is a

single source of almost everything they would need to

know about invertebrate pests and their control. The

title should really read ‘‘Tropical Fruit Pests and

Their Control: A Compendium’’ or some such, more

accurately reflecting the contents and the use of the

book.

A. Lack (&)School of Biological and Molecular Sciences, OxfordBrookes University, Headington, Oxford OX3 0BP, UKe-mail: ajlack@brookes.ac.uk

123

J Insect Conserv (2007) 11:421

DOI 10.1007/s10841-006-9050-9