Population Dynamics of Lacewing, Chrysoperla carnea in Cotton Fields in the Central Region of Syria

Abstract

Hawis, B., Z. Chikh Khamis and M. Al-Nabhan. 2023. Population Dynamics of Lacewing, Chrysoperla carnea in Cotton Fields in the Central Region of Syria. Arab Journal of Plant Protection, 41(4): 375-383. https://doi.org/10.22268/AJPP41.4.375383 Dynamics of Chrysoperla carnea population dynamics were studied for two growing seasons (2017 and 2018) in cotton fields in Hama at central Syria. Adults of C. carnea were prevalent in the field from July until the end of the season. The highest numbers of the predator adults caught by the sweeping net were in the middle of September (4 and 8 adults per 50 sweeping net beats in 2017 and 2018, respectively). The correlation between predator adults and maximum, minimum, and average temperatures were negative with low significance, and positive with weak significance between C. carnea adult population and relative humidity in 2017, but no correlation between these variables in 2018 were recorded. The correlation between adults and sunshine duration was negative in both seasons. C. carnea eggs were recorded in cotton fields in July of both seasons and continued to be present all during the season until 14 October in 2017 (22.96 eggs/100 leaves), and in 2018 predator eggs were reduced at the end of September to 7.41eggs/100 leaves. The highest number of eggs were noticed at the third week of 382 مجلة وقاية النبات العربية، مجلد ،41 عدد 4 ) 2023( august (38.52 and 49.63 eggs in 2017 and 2018, respectively). There was intermediate positive significance between eggs and minimum and average temperature in 2018. Positive correlations were recorded between the predator eggs and whitefly and aphid’s nymphs in both seasons. The low and middle levels of the cotton plant leaves were the preferred sites for females to put their eggs, and the proportion of eggs placed on these parts of plant in both seasons was 76.34%. Keywords: Chrysoperla carnea, population dynamics, weather parameters, Bemisia tabaci, Aphis gossypii, oviposition preference