Determination of Tropinota hirta (Poda) (Coleoptera: Cetoniidae) Caught in Different Traps Feeding on Almond (Prunus amygdalus Linnaeus) Flowers

ABSTRACT: Almond (Prunus amygdalus Linnaeus) is very beneficial for human health in terms of high oil, calcium and other mineral substances it contains. It is consumed as fresh almonds, dried nuts, and roasted almonds (with or without salt), as well as in the food industry in the confectionery, chocolate and pastry industries, almond oil, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries, and also as animal feed because its green peel contains sugar. One of the factors that negatively affect production in almond cultivation is plant protection factors. One of these factors is Tropinota hirta (Poda) (Coleoptera: Cetoniidae). In many parts of the world, it causes damage by feeding on the flowers of the trees in commercial almond orchards and is considered as an economically important pest because it causes product losses. In this study, it was carried out to determine the trapping of T. hirta, which is harmful in almond orchards in Mardin province, has an important potential and economic importance in almond production, in different types of traps. The studies were carried out in a garden with at least 100-150 trees at weekly intervals between February and May in 2018. In the experiments, funnel, basin, bucket and sticky plate-shaped pheromone and blue-colored trap types without pheromones were studied. As a result of 13 counts made in 8 different traps, 4 with pheromone and 4 without pheromone, 6,518 T. hirta were caught. In the experiments, it was determined that in terms of the number of traps of T. hirta in both pheromone and non-pheromone traps, the most in funnel-type traps, followed by washtub, water bearer and blue-colored sticky sheet traps. The first emergence of the pest into nature was the beginning of the phenological flowering of almond trees on March 01, when the daily air temperature was 8-10 °C on average. In the period between the second week of March and the second week of April, where the average daily temperature is between 13-15 °C and the average daily humidity was between 40-60% in the gardens, the population density of the pest was at maximum levels and it only fed on flowers during this period. It was determined that the population density of the pest started to decrease rapidly with the end of the flowering period and ended in the third week of May.