Parasitism rate and fluctuations of parasitoids on safflower fly, Acanthiophilus helianthi, on different safflower cultivars in south of Tehran

Document Type : Short Article

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Abstract

The safflower fly, Acanthiophilus helianthi is one of the most important pests of safflower in Iran. Using parasitoids is always considered as one of the integrated pest management methods. In order to evaluate parasitism rate and fluctuations of the safflower fly by parasitoids, seven safflowerr cultivars including Goldasht, Padideh, Zarghan, Varamin, PI, Acataria and Mec163 were cultivated with a Completely Randomized Block Design field experiment with four replicates in research field of Shahed University Research Center (south of Tehran).Goldasht cultivar was cultivated under experimental plots in four replicates in Shahed University, research fields in 2012. Sampling was carried out from safflower bolls every seven weeks. Results showed that two wasp parasitoids including Microdontomerus annulatus (Spinola, 1808) (Hym.: Torymidae)and Ormyrus gratiosus (Forster, 1860) (Hym.: Ormyridae)were active on the larvae and pupae of the safflower fly. The highest parasitism rate of O. gratiosus species in the 19th and 35th July (12.3%) was observed on the Mec163 cultivar. In these dates the lowest parasitism rate (6.58%) was occurred on PI and Padideh cultivars. The highest parasitism rate by M. annulatus parasitoid species was observed as 7.56% and 7.52% on the Padideh and Mec163 cultivars, respectively and the lowest parasitism (6.49%) was observed on the Varamin cultivar. Overall, it can be concluded that due to the application of insecticides for controlling safflower pests, especially A. helianthi in the cultivated areas, parasitoids activity was very low. Therefore, the use of selective insecticides and planting flowering plants as a living host of parasitoids can enhance their performances.

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BioControl in Plant Protection
Volume 2, Issue 2 - Serial Number 2
February 2015
Pages 69-74

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