Monitoring the appearance and possibility for prevention of the apple sawfly in Croatia
The apple sawfly Hoplocampa testudinea Klug has recently become a widespread pest in Croatian apple orchards. It causes severe damage in the blooming period due to the fact that infested fruit fall off.This article shows results collected over three years of field research on trap catches of sawflies, the period of laying eggs, the appearance of larvae and detection of damage. In the climate of northwestern Croatia, adult sawfly appear in April during the blooming period of the early apple variety of Idared.By monitoring temperatures from January 1, adults were detected when the thermal constant reached 210 day-degrees. Our observations showed that the larvae emerged when the sum of thermal constants reached ca. 110 day-degrees.The investigation of effective control strategies with insecticides showed high efficacy of thiametoxam (Actara), imidacloprid (Confidor), thiacloprid (Calypso) and betacyfluthrin + oxydemeton-methyl (Enduro) and lower efficacy of phosalone (Zolone), chlorpyrifos-methyl (Reldan), and lambda cyhalothrin (Karate).
Visual Monitoring Trap for European Apple Sawfly
Field observations of Hoplocampa testudinea Klug, a pest of developing apple fruit, indicated that the adults were attracted to apple blossoms where they fed on pollen and where females oviposited. Spectrophotometric analysis of apple blossom parts showed a negligible amount of reflection in the UV (300–400 nm) but a large amount in the remainder of the insect visible spectrum (400–650 nm). In field tests, non-UV-reflecting white sticky-coated rectangles captured more adults than any other surfaces tested including: yellow, red, orange, black, green, and blue enamels; various day-light fluorescent hues; various UV-reflecting white pigments; aluminum foil; and clear Plexiglas®. We conclude that the most preferred white rectangle could be utilized effectively to trap and monitor adults in apple orchards.
Assessment of some agro-technological parameters of cactus pear fruit ( Opuntia ficus-indica Mill . ) in Morocco cultivars
Cactaceae had always attracted attention by their strange shapes and important adaptability supporting extreme conditions. For this reasons, Fruit traits were measured on 13 cultivars growing in different locations in Morocco. Results show significant differences between the cultivars. The source of this variation was probably genetic without excluding the geographic effects. The Tamri, Berkan, Ait Baha cultivars showed small fruit dimensions and weight. In contrast, Sidi-Ifni M, Nador, Mohammedia and Ben Guerir were greater than 100 g by fruit. Sidi-Ifni M, Hoceima, Mohammedia and Nador, although larger, contained few seeds, about 200 seeds per fruit; while Tamri, Ait Baha, Safi, Meknes and Tafraout contained over than 230 seeds per fruit. High levels of juice about 62 ml/100 g pulp were obtained with Sidi-Ifni M, Nador, Mohammedia and Ben Guerir cultivars. Total sugars of the 13 cultivars were quite similar and pH was low in Tamri and close to neutrality in the rest of cultivars. Therefore, oil extracted from Opuntia ficus-indica seeds constituted 13.6% of the whole seed. Thin-layer chromatography in conjunction with gas-liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry revealed a relatively high degree of unsaturation, 83.32% and 16% for saturated fatty acid, with a linoleic acid content of 63.66% followed by oleic 18.34%, palmitic 12.84% and stearic acid 2.81%. Based on these results, O. ficus-indica seed oil appears to be a good potential source of edible oil for human and (or) animal consumption. Our investigation describes that Tamri and Tafraout cultivars are not really a commercial viable fruit due to low total soluble solids value and highest seeds number per fruit. Against Mohammedia, Sidi Ifni M and Nador cultivars proved to have the highest fruit weight, very good total soluble solids value and low number of seeds, these cultivars can therefore be planted for both fruit production and for harvesting of cladodes for animal feed.