Evaluating Host Preference and the Population Dynamics of Insect Pests and Spider Mite and Their Associated Predators on Solanaceous Crops

Experiments were carried out at the experimental farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, Kafr elsheikh University, during 2020 and 2021 summer seasons. The objectives were to observe population fluctuations of some arthropod pests and their preference to three solanaceous crops: eggplant, tomato and pepper. The study also examined the correlation between predators and certain pests. In addition to the spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch and Tuta absoluta, five piercing-sucking insects infested each of the vegetable crops; Aphis spp., Thrips tabaci Lindeman, Bemisia tabaci (Genn.), Empoasca spp. and Phenacoccus hirsutus Green. Results obtained revealed that eggplant was the most preferred solanaceous host that harboured 81.17% out of total aphids, B. tabaci (87.07%), Empoasca spp. (53.51%), P. hirsutus (65.78%) and T. urticae (95.33%). The second preferred host was tomato that had 58.17 and 88.83% out of total populations of T. tabaci and T. absoluta, respectively. Pepper plants were mostly the least preferred host. Five predatory species were found associated with the above mentioned pests. These arthropod predators were spiders, Scymnus spp., Orius spp., Chrysoperla carnea and Coccinella spp. Highly significant positive correlations were found between aphids and each of Scymnus spp. and Coccinella spp. In addition, the correlations between T. tabaci and Orius spp., and between Empoasca spp. and spiders were highly positively significant. Results highlighted that eggplant was the most infested by the piercing-sucking insects and the spider mite T. urticae compared to tomato and pepper.