Studies on the aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and their natural enemies on peach orchards in Izmir

Field surveys were carried out during 2008 in order to report the results of survey of aphid species, their natural enemies and distribution in some peach orchards in Izmir province. In addition, this work has gained importance after Plum Pox Virus previously detected in stone fruits in Izmir, because aphids are important vectors of the disease For this purpose samples were taken from Bayindir, Bergama, Bornova, Kemalpasa, Menemen, Odemis, Selcuk, Tire and Torbali districts of Izmir. Aphid species determined were Brachycaudus helichrysi (Kaltenbach, 1843), Hyalopterus pruni (Geoffroy, 1762), Myzus (Nectarosiphon) persicae (Sulzer, 1776) and Pterochloroides persicae (Cholodkovsky, 1899) (Hemiptera. Aphididae). The Infested buds percentage in minimum and maximum were found to be 3% and 85%, respectively in the orchards Coccinella septempunctata Linnaeus, 1758, Adalia bipunctata (Linnaeus, 1758), A decempunctata (Linnaeus, 1758), Oenopia conglobata (Linnaeus, 1758), Hippodamia variegata (Goeze, 1777) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), Episyrphus balteatus (De Geer, 1776), Eupeodes (Metasyrphus) corollae (Fabricius, 1794), Ischiodon scutellaris (Fabricius, 1805), Scaeva pyrastri (Linnaeus, 1758) (Diptera: Syriphidae), Leucopis annulipes (Zetterstedt, 1848) (Diptera: Chamaemyiidae) and Chrysoperia carnea (Stephens, 1836) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) were found as predators and Aphidius colemani Viereck, 1912, Aphidius matricariae Haliday, 1834, Aphidius transcaspicus Telenga, 1958, Diaeretiella rapae (McIntosh, 1855) and Ephedrus persicae Froggatt, 1904 (Hymenoptera. Braconidae) were determined as parasitoids of aphids.