Efficacy of Some Predators and Lecanicillium lecanii Fungus in Controlling of Aphis gossypii (Glover) and Myzus persicae (Sulzer) in Potato Crop

Abstract

Lokma, N., A.A.A. Saleh, S.A.M. Amer and M F.M. Zawrah. 2023. Efficacy of Some Predators and Lecanicillium lecanii Fungus in Controlling of Aphis gossypii (Glover) and Myzus persicae (Sulzer) in Potato Crop. Arab Journal of Plant Protection, 41(2): 152-160. https://doi.org/10.22268/AJPP-041.2.152160 This study was conducted to evaluate the efficiency of predators and Lecanicillium lecanii suspension as bicontrol agents against Myzus persicae and Aphis gossypii in potato crop, whereas Aphis gossypii had two peaks in the third week of March and April in 2020 and 2021 seasons. In addition, M. persicae had two peaks for both seasons in the fourth week of March and third week of April in 2020 and in the third week of March during 2021. The common predators observed in potato fields were: Coccinella undecimpunctata L., Chrysoperla carnea Steph., Coccinella septumpunctata, Metasyrphus corollae F. and Cydonia vicina isis (Muls.). Regarding potato predators, one peak was found in the second week of March (60 predators/25 leaves) during the 2020 season, and two peaks were found in the third week of March and second week of April (53 and 38 predators/25 leaves, respectively), in 2021 season. On the 8th day after treatment, the entomopathogenic fungus L. Lecanii produced maximum aphid mortality at highest concentration of 108 conidia/ml and 50% concentration of fungal metabolites for both M. persicae and A. gossypii. Meanwhile, L. lecanii 50% metabolites solution had more latent effect by decreasing the longevity and the number of nymphs than when using the spore suspension of 108 conidial/ml. Keywords: A. gossypii, M. persicae, aphid predators, Lecanicillium lecanii, potato.