Seasonal abundance of the most important insect pests of maize and their natural enemies in Egypt

Abstract

The experiment was conducted to study the seasonal abundance of the most important insect pests of maize and its relation with natural enemies and weather factors in Assiut governorate during 2019 and 2020 seasons.The samples were examined from June to September to determine the population of Limothrips cerealium (Haliday, 1836), Rhopalosiphum maidis (Fitch, 1856) and Sesamia cretica Lederer, 1857 and its the associated predators. The population of L. cerealium recorded a peak in the 4th week of July 2019 and the 1st week of August 2020. The highest population of R. maidis occurred in 1st week of September at both seasons. The simple correlation and regression between L. cerealium population and three weather factors were insignificant in both seasons while S. cretica population were found to be significant with R.H%. The population of R. maidis in the 1st season was insignificant negative with temperatures but was significant in the 2nd season. The plant age was more effective than the weather factors on the population of the three insect pests. The common predators were Orius albidipennis (Reuter, 1884) and Scymnus interruptus (Goeze, 1777)which were highly significant with all three insect pests.