ALKETA ZEQIRI¹*, REXHEP UKA
Plant Protection Dep., Agricultural University of Tirana.
*Coresponding author e-mail: zeqiri.alketa@gmail.com
Abstract
During the recent years, with the development of fruit growing and fruit cultivation, the study of pests and their status in stone fruit trees in Albania is a crucial moment to realize an adequate strategy not only for the protection of plant health but also of integrated production. Except homoptera pests of fruit trees, during this study it was done also an inventoryof stone fruit trees affected by them, for example: Pseudoaulacaspispentagona (Targioni-Tozzeti) found in peach, nectarine, apricot, cherry, almond, plum; Quadraspidiotusperniciosus (Comstock) found in peaches and cherries; Phorodonpruni (Ferrari) found in plum; Pterochloroidespersicae (Cholodkovsky) found in peach and nectarine; Aulacaspisrosae(Bouche) found in the cherry and plum; Sphaerolecaniumprunastri (Boyer de Fonscolombe) found in plum, etc.Collection of insect pests was carried out in certain periods throughout the year, mainly during the vegetation period. Through this inventory, there were defined kinds of aphids that affect stone fruit trees. As aphids are vectors of different viral diseases, there were also determined the viral diseases that these insect pests spread on plants. Among the most prominent species are: green peach aphid (Myzuspersicae), which is a main vector of many viruses in fruit trees, is found each year in the form of a colony; Leaf-curling plum aphid (Brachycaudushelichrysi), which is a vector of the plum pox virus, etc. Collection and identification of entomophag species of homoptera pest of stone fruit trees is an important part of the research through this year. Further inventory of insect pests of stone fruit trees, in the future will help to implement in the most appropriate time of the measures to suppress them.
Keywords: insect pests, aphid, viral disease, stone fruit trees.
