Entomological News (2020) 129, 386-394

Adil Tonga, Mustafa Atas and Ahmet Bayram (2020)
Maize (Zea mays L.) as a new host plant for the naked grass-mealybug, Heterococcus nudus (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae)
Entomological News 129 (4), 386-394
Abstract: Maize cultivation has enormously increased in southeastern Turkey in recent years. The naked grass-mealybug, Heterococcus nudus (Green, 1926) (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), is known as a pest for many uncultivated Poaceae plants. The aims of this study are to report maize as a new host plant for H. nudus and its early region-wide distribution in Southeastern Turkey and to examine its parasitoids. The mealybug was detected on the first (sown in March-April) crop maize plants in Çinar during periodic surveys in June and August 2018. In total, forty-two maize fields from fourteen counties belonging to five provinces, namely Adiyaman, Batman, Diyarbakir, Mardin, and Sanliurfa, were checked for the presence of the mealybug and its parasitoids. The mealybug was recorded in only two counties, Bismil and Çinar of Diyarbakir province while it was not present on maize plants in other surveyed provinces. Mealybug specimens were found feeding between leaf sheets and the stem of maize plants. Mean infestation ratios, i.e. the number of adults + larvae (±SEM), were 2.69 (± 0.52) and 0.5 (± 0.23) adult ± larvae for Çinar and Bismil respectively. The pest did not infest second crop maize plants (sown in June-July). In addition, incubation of collected grass mealybug individuals yielded no parasitoids. Since the pest is not widely distributed throughout the region and currently has very low population densities, no control practices are recommended for the pest.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Ahmet Bayram

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
general biology - morphology - evolution

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Heterococcus nudus	Maize/corn (Zea mays)	Turkey