Annual occurrence of the wax scale insect Ceroplastis rusci (Linna) on Fig trees in the Al-Haidariya District of Najaf Governorate
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59658/jkas.v12i4.5115Keywords:
Wax scale insect, Fig trees Ceroplastes rusci, IraqAbstract
A study was conducted during the 2024/2025 season to determine the annual presence and population density of the wax-scale insect Ceroplastis rusci. The population density of non-Ovipositing adults was studied from September 1, 2024, to April 1, 2025, in a Fig orchard in Al-Haidariya District of Najaf Governorate. The field survey on Black Diyala Fig trees showed a clear variation in the population density of the insect throughout the year, with a sharp decline during the winter months (from the beginning of December to mid of February), where the lowest rate was recorded in December 2024 (0.54 insects/tree). The peak population density of the adult insect reached 6.98 insects/tree in September, while the numbers gradually declined as winter approached. The results showed significant differences between the different months of the year. The insect density peaked at the beginning of the first week of October 2024, when it began a continuous relative decline. The distribution of insect numbers across different tree levels and directions was also studied. The results showed that the insect is widely distributed in the surveyed areas. It was found that non- Ovipositing adults infest the upper surface of the leaf in the lower and middle levels of the tree in the first generation and they prefer the middle level only in the second generation. The survey results showed that the insect prefers the upper part in the third generation and the winter hibernation stage. The study also indicated that the insect's spread depends on the location of the trees, wind direction, and surrounding environmental conditions, which significantly impact insect spread. The possibility of utilizing these results in designing a pest control program in the area where it is widespread was discussed.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Copyright (c) 2024 is the Author's article. Published by the Journal of Kerbala for Agricultural Sciences under a CC BY 4.0 license
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Licensing Terms
All articles are published under a Creative Commons License and will be directed to the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) That permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This license also allows the work to be used for commercial purposes.
Use by both non-commercial and commercial users
This content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license, permitting use by both non-commercial and commercial users. Individual users may access, download, copy, display, and redistribute the articles to colleagues, as well as adapt, translate, and text- and data-mine the content, subject to the following conditions:
- The author's moral rights, including the right of attribution and the right to protect their work from derogatory treatment, are respected.
- Where content in the article is identified as belonging to a third party, users must ensure that any reuse complies with the copyright policies of the owner of that content.
- If the article content is reused for research or educational purposes, users should maintain a link to the appropriate bibliographic citation, including the DOI and a link to the published version on the journal's website.
