Survey of the Olive Pests and Their Control in Egypt: A Review

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Plant Protection Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Dokki, Giza, Egypt

Abstract

This work aimed to identify the olive insect pests and their associated natural enemies recorded in Egypt by using the available literatures. Determination of the mites associated with olive groves is also took a beam of light. The collected articles exhibited the presence of 15 hexapod species belonging to 14 genera, 9 families and 4 orders in association with olive groves. Three predatory Acarid species were also recorded. The obtained data clear that, 60% of the recorded arthropod pests were belonging to order Homoptera.  However, 20%, 13.33% and 6.67% of the recovered species were belonging to orders Lepidoptera, Diptera and Coleoptera, respectively. Fifty five parasitoid species belonging to 9 Hymenopteran families were recorded in association with arthropods infesting olive trees. The obtained data showed that 30.90% of the total identified parasitoid species were belonging to family Aphilinidae. It followed by family Encyrtidae by (27.27%). The remaining families can be arranged in descending order as follows: Pteromalidae by 10.91% > Braconidae by 9.10% > both of Euritomidae and Trichogrammatidae by 7.27% > Eupelmidae by 3.64% > both of Bethylidae and Chalcididae by 1.82%. The role of biological and chemical control procedures used to manage olive pests was determined. Parasitism of certain parasitoid species on the main olive arthropod pests was investigated. The impact of chemical and safe alternative compounds to reduce olive pests and their associated natural enemies has been discussed in more details. 

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