دراسة قابلية بعض أصناف البطيخ المحلية للإصابة بالحشرات الماصة للعصارة النباتية و ارتباطها بالمفترسات الحشرية

Abstract EN

The study was conducted to determine the susceptibility of local melon cultivars (Spinal and Pineapple) to sucking insect pests; cotton thrips Thrips tabaci Lind., whitefly Bemisia tabaci Genn.

and cotton aphid Aphis gossypii Glover and estimate the population density of their associated predators; including the green lion aphid Chrysoperla carnea (Steph.) and eleven spotted bug Coccinella undecimpunctata L.

during the 2014 spring season in the experimental fields of College of Agriculture, Abu Ghraib, Iraq.

The results showed that the infestation of melon cultivars with sucking pests began from the seedling stage until harvest.

The melon cv.

Spinal was more susceptible to high infestation compared with cv.

Pineapple.

Thirps had three peaks during the season, the first was during early May, the second by the end of May, whereas the third was during the second half of June.

The whitefly and the aphid had one peak each during early June and early May, respectively.

The presence of predators, the green lacewing and the coccenellid, was associated with all pests on both melon cvs.

during the season and their numbers were positively correlated with the melon cv.

The green lacewing and the coccinellid had one peak during the end of May.

The results of the statistical analysis showed a significant positive correlation between the predators and pests numbers on both melon cvs.

Keywords: sucking insects, predators, melon, susceptibility.