Seasonal activity of the red-striped soft scale insect, Pulvinaria tenuivalvata (Hemiptera:Coccidae) infesting sugarcane fields at Qena, Egypt

Bakry, S,El-Amir M,Mahmoud H,Abd-Rabou S

doi:10.21608/eajbsa.2012.13873

Abstract

The red-striped soft scale insect, Pulvinaria tenuivalvata (Newstead) (Hemiptera : Coccidae) is a serious pest on sugarcane. As a basic study for developing future management of this scale species, seasonal activity of different stages of this insect was carried out through two successive seasons (2006/2007 and 2007/2008) at Esna district, Qena governorate. The obtained results showed that, P. tenuivalvata had four peaks occurred in mid of July, mid-September, beginning of November and beginning of December per season. The second season of study cleared that the total population of this insect was higher in comparison to the first season of investigation, which may due to the influence of favourable factors. The combined effect of the tested weather factors was responsible about some in the total population. The percentages of explained variance (E.V.) indicate that all tested variables were together responsible for (30.6 and 42%) during the two seasons of study, respectively.

Highlights

Sugarcane, Saccharum officinarum (Family: Poaceae) is an economic important field crop and the main source of sugar production in Egypt, in addition to produce black honey, fresh juice and several chemical sub-products
It cultivate with large scale in Upper Egypt, especially in Qena governorate
The present work was carried out in sugarcane fields heavily infested by P. tenuivalvata at Esna district, Qena Governorate in an area about one feddan

Summary

Introduction

Saccharum officinarum (Family: Poaceae) is an economic important field crop and the main source of sugar production in Egypt, in addition to produce black honey, fresh juice and several chemical sub-products. It cultivate with large scale in Upper Egypt, especially in Qena governorate (it cultivated about 50% of total sugarcane in Egypt). Many authors reported the soft scale insect, P. tenuivalvata as a serious pest attacking sugarcane plantations (Ali et al, 2000, Shalaby, 2002 and Tohamy et al, 2002)

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