Role of the Rove Beetle, Paederus memnonius (Erichson) (Coleoptera : Staphylinidae) in Controlling Certain Sugar Beet Pests for the First Time in Egypt

Abstract

Pest predators are gaining more importance in pest management programme since pesticides lead to many serious problems like air and water pollution, health hazards, killing of beneficial organisms, pest resistance, pest resurgence, secondary pest outbreak, interruption in ecocycles ect. Thus, this study was performed at the farm of Sakha Agricultural Research Station in Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate throughout two successive seasons 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 to find out the efficacy of the staphylinid, P.memnonius as an important predator in regulating the population of sugar beet pests. Results proved that highly significant positive correlations were attained between P. memnonius and cotton leaf worms, Agrotis ipsilon (Hufnagel) , Cicadellidae, aphids, Pegomyia mixta (Villeneuve), Scrobipalpa ocellatella (Boyd), Cassida vittata (Viller), Lixus junci (Boheman) and snails ( Monacha spp.) with values; 0.601**, 0.711**, 0.602**, 0.731**, 0.612**, 0.733**, 0.811**, 0.831** and 0.611**, respectively during 2018/2019 season. 0.602**, 0.613**, 0.610**, 0.701**, 0.634**, 0.702**, 0.801**, 0.802** and 0.633** respectively during 2019/2020 seasons. The common prey of this predator were; leaf cotton worms, A.ipsilon, Cicadellidae, aphids. P.mixta , S.ocellatella, C.vittata, L.junci and snails with 4.00, 2.66, 8.57, 6.66, 16.00, 17.33, 24.00, 13.33 and 8.00%, respectively, throughout 2018/2019 season, 2.85, 1.42, 5.71, 8.57, 20.00, 21.42, 22.85, 12.85 and 4.28%, respectively during 2019/2020. In conclusion this study is a necessary step to know the role of this predator in biological control to some sugar beet pests.