Sunn Pest (Hemiptera: Scutelleridae) Oviposition and Egg Parasitism in Syria

Abstract

Sunn Pest (Eurygaster integriceps Puton.) is the most important insect pest of wheat in Syria. Hymenopteran egg parasitoids are among the natural enemies that contribute to the reduction of Sunn Pest populations. Our surveys from 1997-1999 revealed six egg parasitoid species: Scelionidae; Trissolcus grandis (Thomson), T. simoni (Mayr), T. vassilievi (Mayr) and Gryon fasciatus (Priener) and Encyrtidae: Ooencyrtus fecundus (Ferrière and Voegelé) and O. telenomicida (Vassiliev). They were active in the spring, about 2 weeks after Sunn Pest migrated to cereal fields from its overwintering sites. The level of parasitism varied from year to year, in 1998-1999 and 1999-2000 seasons it reached 100% at Azaz, Syria at the end of the seasons. These natural enemies seem to be playing an important role in regulating Sunn pest population and thus should be conserved.