Bionomics of the jasmine whitefly Dialeurodes kirkaldyi (Hemiptera : Aleyrodidae)‎ in Egypt as well as seasonal abundance of this pest and its parasitoid on jasmine

Abstract EN

Jasmine is one of the oldest traditional flowers and it is an important flowering group of plants which are commercially grown for their fragment flowers and oil production.

The jasmine whitefly Dialeurodes kirkaldyi (Kotinsky) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is one of the most important pest of jasmine all over the world and Egypt.

Larvae and adults of this pest suck the sap from the under surface of the leaves and infested leaves turn yellow.

The aim of this work is to study the bionomics of D.

kirkaldyi as well as seasonal abundance of this pest and its parasitoid on jasmine plant .

The results indicated that D.

kirkaldyi infested by 12 host plants distributed in 9 Governorates and recorded associated with 4 parasitoids in Egypt as well as taxonomy studies of it was provided.It also was found infesting jasmine plants at Gharbiya Governorate, Egypt.

To obtain basic ecological data for the whitefly , D.

kirkaldyi and its parasitoid Eretmocerus corni Haldeman (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) every two weeks intervals throughout two seasons (August to December 2018 and 2019).

Seasonal fluctuations of alive total population, nymphs and adults of D.

kirkaldyi throughout the tested year.

The seasonal abundance for both nymph and adult recorded one peak on middle of October in two seasons.

The effects of four ecological factors (3 abiotic +1 biotic) on the population dynamics of alive larvae and adult population were estimated.

The parasitoid E.

corni showed highly significant correlation with larvae of D.

kirkaldyi by (r= 0.91 and 0.92) in two seasons.