Plants Mineral Nutrition on the Preference of Glycaspis brimblecombei (Hemiptera: Aphalaridae) in Eucalyptus sp.

Abstract

The plants nutritional maintenance is a support to their natural defense in relation to the insects attack of economic importance. The mineral nutrition arises as an alternative, since it provides the plants silvicultural conditions necessary to express all their productive potential, with the power of resistance to biotic constraints. Thus this study had as objective to evaluate the effect of different formulations of mineral fertilization in the eucalyptus plantations in relation to occurrence of Glycaspis brimblecombei (Moore), in the field. The experiment was carried out in the field from December 2015 to December 2016. The experimental arrangement was planned provided in the factorial design, with three origins of Eucalyptus sp. (Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehn; hybrids (Eucalyptus urophylla S.T. Blake) x Eucalyptus grandis (Hill ex Maiden) and E. urophylla x E. camaldulensis); and seven nutritional formulations. The research data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA), under a randomized block design in a factorial scheme (3 x 7), and the means compared by the Tukey test at 5% probability of error. The response variable used in the analysis was the occurrence of eggs and lerps, being transformed, in order to become suitable for parametric tests. The population fluctuation was carried out in the planting annual cycle. For the correlation analysis between the dependent and the independent variables, the data were analyzed by Pearson correlation (r) and their values were analyzed by using the Student's T-Test. The omissions influenced on the preference of the red gum lerp psyllid to Eucalyptus sp. In E. camaldulensis the omission of nitrogen and potassium influence on the preference and the absence of silicon causes the favoring of the pest oviposition. In the hybrid E. urophylla x E. grandis the absence of fertilization and the absence of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, individually, are less preferred.