Seasonal abundance of the fig wax scale insect Ceroplastes rusci (Hemiptera : Coccidae)‎ on medicinal plant Withania somnifera in Beni-Suef governorate, Egypt

Abstract EN

The present study dealt with the population fluctuations of Ceroplastes rusci (L.) (Hemiptera: Coccidae) during two successive seasons (2016-2017) and (2017-2018), on Withania somnifera (L.) (Ashwagandha) at Beba district, Beni-Suef Governorate.

The obtained data showed that C.

rusci had four annual peaks on W.

somnifera in the two successive years of the study.

These peaks were recorded during (May, August, October and December) and (May, August, October and January) in the first and second years, respectively.

The relationship between the meteorological factors and the total population of the pest was studied in this investigation.

During this work was recorded 6 parasitoids and one hyperparasitoid.

These are Habrolebis sp., Metaphycus helvolus (Compere), M.

zebratus Mercet and Microterys nietneri (Motschulsky) (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) ; Scutellista caerulea (Fonscolombe) (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae); Tetrastichus ceroplastae (Girault) (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) and hyperparasitoid, Marietta leopardina Motschulsky (Hymenoptera:Aphelinidae).

Also, the rate of parasitism of these parasitoids was studied.