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Cereals are attacked by several pests which reduce their yield and cause important losses. The Cereal Leaf Beetles (CLB) are emerging pests on cereals responsible of considerable damages. Oulema spp. (Coleoptera; Chrysomelidae; Criocerinae) populations and their infestation rates were evaluated on barley culture. Obtained results showed that cereal leaf beetles colonized the two barley plots (P1 and P2) in the same way during the survey period unless P1 was attacked earlier than P2 due to the quick development of plants as a consequence of the suitable climate conditions and the soil structure. Highest infestation rates reached values about 72% and 70% for P1 and P2 respectively. Then, they tended to decrease approaching hot season. Cereal leaf beetles prefer a humid space with fresh vegetation without chemical applications.

New techniques for Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann, 1824) control are being studied and developed to replace traditional organophosphate pesticide applications. A mass trapping strategy offers promising medfly control within integrated pest management (IPM) programmes. Field assays were performed to study the efficacy of two mass trapping techniques based on PheroNorm^® and Ceratrap^® lures that were compared to a conventional approach to control the medfly in Tunisian apricot orchards. The results showed that both mass trapping techniques had a similar efficiency in reducing the C. capitata population. The degrees Brix in the fruits was a determinant issue since the initial apricot fruit damage was detected at 6.4%. At harvesting, the lowest fruit damage rate was recorded in the PheroNorm^® (4.25%) and Ceratrap^® (6.50%) treated orchards, compared with the conventional approach (10.75%). Therefore, the use of 50 PheroNorm^® and Ceratrap^® traps per ha density within an IPM approach may be very useful to control the C. capitata populations in apricot orchards.

This study aims to identify thrips species belonging to the genus Thrips occurring on weed species which harbor thrips when crops are absent. An inventory of thrips species was carried out during three consecutive years (2019, 2020 and 2021) in eleven locations in the governorate of Zaghouan (North-Eastern Tunisia). Seven thrips species belonging to the genus Thrips were identified: Thrips tabaci Lindemann (1888), T. angusticeps Uzel (1895), T. fuscipennis Haliday (1836), T. australis Bagnall (1915), T. meridionalis Priesner (1926), T. palmi Karny (1925) and T. imaginis Bagnall (1926). The most abundant and dominant thrips species was T. tabaci considered as eudominant species with 81.7%, followed by T. angusticeps and T. fuscipennis. The rest of identified species were classified as precedent. Regarding weeds, 31 species were identified (84% dicotyledonous and 16% monocotyledonous) belonging to 16 botanical families. The most represented families were Asteraceae (22%) followed by Poaceae (16%) and Fabaceae (13%). Among these 31 weeds, only 26 species were confirmed as hosts for thrips. Systematic and morphological description of thrips species are given in this paper.

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