Population fluctuations of the main pests infesting kidney beans and its relation with some weather factors

Gamila Sh. Selem1; Heba A. Ismail 2 and Abd-Elsamad, A. A.2

Abstract

The present work was conducted during the two summer successive seasons, 2014 and 2015 to study the population fluctuations of the red spider mite Tetranychus urticae Koch, cow pea aphid Aphis craccivora Koch, American serpentine leaf miner Liriomyza trifolii (Burgess), cotton whitefly Bemesia tabaci (Genn.), potato leafhopper Empoasca decipiens (Paoli), cotton thrips Thrips tabaci L. and cotton aphid Aphis gossypii Glover infesting kidney bean plants at Abo Hammad district, Sharkia governorate, Egypt. The aforementioned pests were collected by two different methods from kidney bean plantation using plant samples and sweeping net. The obtained results showed that the plant samples proved to be the best method to investigate mite, aphids, leaf miner (larvae), whitefly and thrips pests, while sweeping net proved to be the best technique to investigate the potato leafhoppers. The seasonal abundance of T. urticae and L. trifolii showed three peaks of population density, while the results of A. craccivora, B. tabaci, E. decipiens on kidney bean plants showed two peaks of population density during two seasons. On the other hand T. tabaci recorded one peak of population density. Regarding to the effect of mean temperature and atmospheric relative humidity as well as their total combined effect on the numbers of certain investigated pests, it is obvious that the effect was clear.

Key words

Population fluctuations, Tetranychus urticae Koch, Aphis craccivora Koch Liriomyza trifolii (Burgess), Kidney beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.).