Population Density of Piercing-Sucking Pests and their Associated Natural Enemies on Pepper, Capsicum annuum L. Plants under Greenhouse Condition at Ismailia Governorate, Egypt

Abstract

This study was conducted on pepper plants, Capsicum annuum L under greenhouse condition, in the farm of El Qassaseen Horticulture Research Station, Ismailia Governorate during the two successive winter seasons of 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 to survey the main piercing-sucking pests and associated natural enemies, also determine the population density and occurrence percentage for main species of pests and associated natural enemies. The obtained results showed that, the homopterous insects were the dominant piercingsucking pests recorded 85.87 % (at the 1 st season) followed by order Acarina family Tetranychidae (the two spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urtica Koch.) recorded 14.32 % (at the 2 nd season), but the order Thysanoptera, family Thrpidae (Onion thrips, Thrips tabaci Lind.) was occurred by lowest occurrence percentage 2.82 % of the total numbers of surveyed pests recorded at the 2 nd season. While the Aphididae was the dominant homopterous family presented with 80.96 % (at the 1 st season) of the total surveyed pests with three aphid species (green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (Sulz.), potato aphids, Macrosiphum euphorbiae (Thomas) and cotton aphids, Aphis gossypii Glov.), the Cicadellidae recorded lowest percentage of 0.99 % at the1 st season. The M. persicae found colonized plants terminals with high percentage of 72.80 % than on leaves by 27.20%; in contrast with M. euphorbiae which recorded 83.85% on leaves and 16.14% on terminals, while A. gossypii found on flowers only. The highest peak (as grand mean of the three aphid species) of 165.67 individuals /plant was recorded at 11 st March during the 1 st season. The highest parasitizem percentage on aphid species of 85.00 % was recorded at 22 nd June during the 2 nd season. The highest peaks for whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Genn.) of 12.00 individuals / leaf were recorded at 8 th February and 16 th June during the 2 nd season. The leafhoppers, Empoasca spp. gave two weak peaks throughout the short activity period during the two study seasons. In the same trend, the population of T. tabaci recorded relatively high peak of 7.00 individuals/ leaf at 22 nd April during the 1 st season. Also, the T. urtica recorded the relatively high peak of 30.33 individuals/ inch 2 at 22 nd April during the 1 st season. The highest peak of the general mean of insect predators (Coccinella spp. and Syrphus spp.) and that of grand mean of insect plus mite predators were recorded at 25 th March with 22.00 individuals/plant and 25.67 individuals/plant throughout the 1 st season for the two means, respectively. The peaks of predators were congruent in time with high activity period of pests that may be play main role in suppress piercing-sucking pests. The statistical analysis results showed that, the highest effect as explained variance, EV % = 67.92 and 59.94 % were recorded for the effect of each of parasitoid and total insect predators on aphids species during the 1 st season. So, it could be recommended to use each of parasitoids and predators to control piercing-sucking pests i...

Diversity of Piercing-Sucking Pests Infesting Some Plants of Solanaceae and Cucurbitaceae Families

“…Our findings were nearly comparable to those obtained by Al-Habshy et al (2019) who reported that leafhopper and aphid peaks occurred in 3 rd week of February on barley plants. Also on pepper, the highest peak of aphid species was 165.67 individuals /plant in mid-March (Ibrahim, 2017). In the present study, the infestation of all tested pests was recorded with 1-3 peaks as in the direction of the findings by El-Hadary and Ahmed (2021) who detected four peaks with A. gossypii, two peaks with B. tabaci and three peaks with Empoasca spp.…”

“…Many phytophagous pests including cotton whitefly, Bemisia tabaci, aphids, Aphis gossypii & Myzus persicae, leafhopper, Empoasca decipiens and two-spotted spider mites, Tetranychus urticae were infested Solanaceae and Cucurbitaceae crops (Abd El-Wahab et al, 2012 andAl-Habshy et al, 2013). A large scale of these sucking pests attack numerous Cucurbitaceae and Solanaceae species such as watermelon (Abou El-Saad, 2015) cucumber (Ibrahim, 2017), ash-gourd (Khan et al, 1999), squash (Abdallah et al, 2012), cantaloupe (Younes et al, 2010) snakecucumber (Mondal et al, 2020) pepper (Havanoor and Rafee, 2018) and eggplant (Helmi and Rashwan, 2015). In addition to the direct infestation of piercing-sucking insects, which causes the transmission of viral disease to these plant families, as well as the secretion of honeydew, which leads to the growth of black mold, also, causing photosynthesis stop (Ghosh et al, 2019 andKazak et al, 2015).…”

Ecological Studies on the Peach Green Aphid, Myzus persicae and its Natural Enemies

“…Numbers of aphidophagous adults that visually counted in peach trees that harboured the green peach aphid, M. persicae colonies during the first ( 2019 Ibrahim (2017) in Egypt recorded 3-4 peaks of abundance for M. persicae on pepper. In addition, he recorded two peaks for Coccinella spp.…”

“…(i.e. mummified aphids) during 2019/2020 (A) and 2021/2021 (B) seasons at Aga district Ibrahim (2017). in Egypt recorded 3-4 peaks of abundance for M. persicae on pepper.…”