I've got a Stanley prune that has always been a bug magnet. It's my only European plum.
This year, my son planted a Green Gage and a Sugar prune. 30 new trees and the bugs are going for only his European plums, and, apparently, those are very tasty trees because the bugs are really munching on them.
Last night I went to check on my trees and my Stanly had 1/3 of the branches completely stripped. It had been fine 2 days prior. Complete branches now have nothing but leaf stems on them.
It's not deer. The deer haven't been able to get into my orchard and the branches are stripped all the way to the upper end, which is way higher than I can reach.
A careful inspection revealed absolutely nothing, but I have seen tent caterpillars do that to a tree just before they spin their webs. I've got a neighbor who has a large infestation of tent caterpillars that he has been ignoring for years.
Has anybody else noticed that their European plums are bug magnets? My Japanese plum never has any bug damage. My son has 2 new Japanese plums and they have a leaf or two with a small nibble, but nothing remarkable.
…and yet another fruit tree I’ve (so far) given up on - European ‘prunes.’ But an uncle has both a Brooks and Italian prune tree …and their leaves are consistently bug-riddled! I don’t know how they survive, but they’re over 30 years old and still producing. The fruit’s good, few if any burrowing insects or larva attacking it, but the leaves look like someone went after them with #4 buckshot!
I’ve read and heard, even experienced the fact deer prefer cherry and ‘prune’ leaves to other fruit trees because their leaves give a mild hallucinogenic effect. It was described as them ‘getting high’ - and that they like that and seek it out. Maybe insects enjoy the same? …you know, there are various studies that congress takes a lot of heat for funding, the stuff Leno cultivates for jokes, but those seemingly weird studies may be what lead us to understand, thus circumvent these insect pests.
…as I’ve little to add, I would confirm that European prunes leaves are attacked more often than their Asian (most ‘Japanese plums’ were bread in China) counterparts. I wonder if there’s a higher sugar content (if any) inside their leaves...? …but can you picture it -- “Well, Congress has done it again, they’ve just spent X$X of tax-payers dollars to study the sugar content of prune leaves!†…I can’t come up with his punchline but I'm sure he’d find one 
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