Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Plant Protection Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, MOA, Egypt
2
Plant Protection Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, 71526 Assiut, Egypt
3
Plant Protection Department, Faculty of Agriculture -New Valley, Assiut University, 71526 Assiut, Egypt
Abstract
Field trials were conducted to investigate the infestation levels with the greater date moth, Arenipses sabella Hampson (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)on the bunches and fruits of two common date palms (Saidi and Tamr ) and the cereal cultivar (Mantor) in four Districts (El-Kharga, Paris, Balat and Mut) at the New Valley during 2015&2016 seasons.
Data of the two successive seasons in El-Kharga Oasis indicated that, Saidi (economic cultivar) was more preferred to attack by the greater date moth than Mantor. The average percentages of the cut bunch bases (CBB) which lead to loss the bunch fruits and express about the economic damage were (10.89 and11.20%) on Saidi and (3.08 and 2.00%) on Mantor, respectively. The fruit damage for both cultivars was not noticeable.
Under Mut district, the symptoms of damage by the greater date moth was different where, the pest prefer to attack the fruit than bunch bases. The larvae was seldom feed on bunch bases of Tamr cultivar where it recorded (0.27 and 0.22%) on Tamr and (6.67and 13.02%) on Saidi and the direct date fruit losses were (20.87 and 26.23 %) on Saidi and (47.21 and 44.62%) on Tamr during 2015 and 2016, respectively. The chemical analysis indicated that, Tamr bunch bases obtained highly Calcium and Potassium percentages (0.14 and 1.54%) than Saidi (0.12 and 1.38%), respectively. Meanwhile, the percentages of total protein and total carbohydrate (4.18 and 23.18%) were high in Saidi bunch bases than Tamr, respectively. Tamr fruits obtained highly total carbohydrate, Calcium, and Potassium percentages (61.62, 0.26 and 2.65%) than Saidi fruits (57.30, 0.14 and 1.69%), respectively. There was no significant ratio in the case of total protein.
Concerning to the incidence of A.sabella on Saidi variety across the four districts, this cultivar suffered from attacks with different levels.Above 80% of the tested Saidi date palm was infested.The general cut bunch bases (CBB) (about 11.00 %) was observed in El-Kharga. In Mut district,zero damage effect was obtained on the Saidi bunches and over than 20% of the Saidi fruits was lost directly.
In general, greater date moth has a large capacity to spread and infest all tested date palm under the New Valley conditions, where the average of infestation exceeded eighty percent making it one of the most important pests affecting date palm production in this governorate. Further ecological and biological studies on A. sabella to develop integrated pest management to combat this pest.
Keywords
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