Project Title: Evaluation of Sampling Data to Reduce Frequency of

Several species of flower thrips, including the Florida flower thrips {Frankliniella bispinosa (Morgan)}, Western flower thrips {F. occidentalis (Pergande)}, Eastern flower thrips {F. tritici (Fitch)}, and Scritothrips ruthveni Shull, have recently become known as pests of cultivated blueberries (Spiers et al. 2004). The three Franklinella species are pests of both rabbiteye and southern highbush blueberries in Florida (Liburd and Arevalo 2005). They infest not only blueberries, but a wide variety of other crop and non-crop host plants. Flower thrips damage blueberry flowers in two ways. Both larvae and adults feed on all parts of the flowers including ovaries, styles, petals, and developing fruit. This feeding damage can reduce the quality and quantity of fruit produced (Fig. 1a). Females also cause damage to fruit when they lay their eggs inside flower tissues. The newly hatched larvae bore holes in flower tissue when they emerge (Fig. 1b).