Vertical distribution of some piercing sucking insects on some roselle varieties in Egypt and the role of amino acids concentration in infestation

Abstract

The cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover was found to be the only aphid species infesting the tested roselle varieties (Sudani, Masri and White), Hibiscus sabdariffa L. which were cultivated in El-Kanater El-khayria (about 30 km north Cairo) as ex situ old land. The vertical distribution of the whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Genn.); the leafhopper, Empoasca spp. and the pink hibiscus mealy bug, Maconellicoccus hirsutus Green, as insect pests attacking this crop had been studied. Moreover, certain morphological characters and amino acids concentrations in the three varieties of roselle, were obtained. The obtained results indicated that the experimental insect pests severely attacked leaves of the stem nodes from the 8th to the 11th (counting from the top of the plant), whereas whitefly were more abundant on these nodes. All tested insect species were less abundant on the 4th stem node. This may be due to the extensive existence of gland hairs, that excrete some compound especially phenols that might prevent the insects from reproducing on the leaves. The opposite was, however, true for M. hirsutus as it did not attack Sudani and Masri varieties but the infestation occurred at the highest level on the White variety.