Biodiversity and diet of coccinellidae on citrus in Metidja (algeria)

Abstract

Biological control is a viable alternative to the use of chemical pesticides that are harmful to the environment. From this perspective, this work aims to make an inventory of Coccinellidae and to classify them according to their diet. Sampling by yellow sticky plates is carried out each week from 23 April to 24 July 2014 at the Eastern Metidja very important citrus region in Algeria. A total of 16 ladybug species are sampled in four citrus species, orange, lemon, clementine and pomelo. It is the Coccidiphagous that are the richest with a total of 7 species, followed by the aphidophagous with 5 species and mycophagous with the two species. Finally found the aleurodiphagous and acariphagous, with a single species for each group. With regard to relative abundance, a total of 467 individuals coccinellidae were captured, of which the species Clitostethus arcuatus (ladybug aleurodiphagous) alone counted 285 individuals, that is 61.29%.