Some ecological aspects on olive parlatoria scale, Parlatoria oleae (Colvee) infested plum and olive trees under irrigation system at Burg El-Arab area, Alexandria, Egypt.

ABSTRACT

Field studies were conducted under irrigation system at Burg El-Arab area (50 K.m. west of Alexandria city) to study some ecological aspects of Parlatoria oleae (Colvee) and its parasitoid, Aphytis maculicornis (Masi) that infested olive and plum trees during the two successive years of 2010 and 2011. Field observations revealed that the most of the inspected individuals occurred mainly on the branches of plum trees as compared with those found on leaves, but on olive the insect occurred on all the plant parts including fruits. On plum trees, the obtained data showed that the population of P. oleae reached the maximum during April, November and January in the first year, but in the second one it had four peaks of high population levels during March, August, November and January. The maximal percent as adult females was observed during March, September and January, whereas the adult males appeared only during October and November. The parasitized individuals by A. maculicornis represented higher rate of parasitization from March to August in the first year that extended to September in the second year. On olive trees under irrigation the population of Parlatoria scale and its parasitoid was relatively low. It had three high peaks, during March, December and February in the first year, while in the second one the population reached the maximum during March, December and February. The parasitoid Aphytis maculicormis appeared in March and April marking high percentage levels in the first year, noticeably it was nearly parasitized the scale insect all the year round.