Establishment of a core collection, of limited size and better representation of the whole germplasm phenotypic diversity, is fundamental for fruit tree breeding programs from an economic and management points of view. To achieve this goal with pomegranate fruit trees, 221 genotypes were evaluated for 25 morphological and pomological traits during two successive years. Using the maximization strategy in Power Core software, 12 out of 221 pomegranate genotypes were selected for the new core collection, reducing the population size to 5.42% of the entire collection. Variance difference (VD%) and mean difference (MD%) were calculated as 42.68% and 7.03% in core collection, respectively. This indicates an excellent diversity amongst genotypes within the core collection. The Shannon’s diversity index (H′) in the formed collection suggested that 19 out of 25 phenotypic variables were of high diversity. Results showed that core collection genotypes are equally presented in all three population groups formed by cluster analysis through the original collection. The current research is the first in using phenotypic data to establish a core collection of Iranian pomegranate germplasm. The formation of this core collection will be an effective step towards examining the diversity of the original population and breeding prospects.

A survey of thrips on broad bean plants was conducted during 2010-2011 in three sites of Biskra, whitch is an arid province in Algeria. Scouting for thrips was carried out on plants and flowers of three fields from three locations: Sidi-Okba, M`ziraa and El-Outaya. Seven thrips species belonging to six genera were recorded. Melanthrips fuscus, Aeolothrips intermedius, Rhipidothrips gratiosus, Frankiliniella occidentalis, thrips physapus, Thrips angusticeps and Odontothrips loti. The two last species were the most abundant in the three locations. Aeolothrips intermedius was the most abundant species in El-Outaya. Majority of the thrips are cosmopolitan in distribution and recorded as pest species, they can harm broad bean crop. These include Frankliniella occidentalis that may transmit Tospovirus.

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