Survey, Population Density and Food Preference of Predatory Formicid Species on Scrobipalpa ocellatella Boyd. Life Cycle Stages under Egyptian Sugar Beet Fields

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Plant Protection Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Tanta University, 31527 Tanta, Egypt.

2 Department of Biology, College of science, Hafr Al Batin University, Hafr AL Batin 31991, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

The current study was carried out at the Experimental Farm of Sakha Agricultural Research Station during three cultivations in 2018/19 and 2019/20 seasons. The present study includes a survey of the predatory formicid species associated with the beet moth, Scrobipalpa ocellatella Boyd. larvae in sugar beet fields. The obtained results showed larvae numbers of S. ocellatella increased towards the end of the season and formicid populations were synchronous with that of S. ocellatella in the three cultivations. The simple correlation coefficient values between S. ocellatella larvae population and the predatory formicid populations were very highly positive significant in the two seasons. Five predatory formicid species were recorded belonging to the family Formicidae under the order Hymenoptera, three of them were: Tetramorium depressiceps Menozzi, Tetramorium brevicoryne Brondroit and Camponotus thoracicus (Fah.) recorded by high percentages. While the other two formicid species: Tapinoma simrothi Krausse and Solenopsis latro L. recorded low percentages. As for predation and food preference, the predatory formicid species prefer S. ocellatella larvae to eggs and pupae throughout the three sugar beet cultivations during the two seasons of study. These results proved that formicid species are important predators to S. ocellatella larvae. There for the current investigation aimed to add some contributions to the knowledge of the predatory formicid species as natural biological control agents in Egyptian sugar beet fields.

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