MONITORING CALIFORNIA RED SCALE AND ITS APHELINID PARASITOID USING YELLOW STICKY TRAPS

Abstract

MONITORING CALIFORNIA RED SCALE AND ITS APHELINID PARASITOID USING YELLOW STICKY TRAPS.

Yellow sticky traps, which had been erected to monitor the dispersal of the sweet-potato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci Gennadius, from cotton fields to citrus orchards in Texas, also attracted adult male Aonidiella aurantii (Maskell) and its parasitoid Aphytis sp. Populations in three citrus orchards representing different host-plant varieties and maturity were studied and the effect of these and some environmental parameters on the numbers of male A. aurantii and of its parasitoid caught on the traps are described.

Key words: Rio Grand Valley, Aphelinidae, Diaspididae, flight periods, temperature, relative humidity, evaporation, wind speed, correlations