Thrips species have always been some of the main pests in winter wheat crops. Damages caused by this species are either directly by feeding on leaves flowers or fruit, or indirect acting as vectors of viruses. Due to the lack of knowledge on the thrips fauna in western Romania and also the importance of this crop for local farmers, the aimed of this paper is to survey the thrips species associated to winter wheat crops in Timis County, Romania. Thrips were collected from 5 varieties of winter wheat from November to June 2016 – 2017. The monitoring of thrips adults was made using colored sticky traps and the monitoring of thrips larvae was made using the method of ears sampling. The collected material was transported by specific methods in the Entomology laboratory at the Faculty of Agriculture Timisoara. With the help of stereozoom microscope there were determinate the thrips species and also the number of larvae/ear. The most commonly found thrips species was Haplothrips tritici Kurdjumov. According with the present studies, the following thrips species also occur in winter wheat crops, in western Romania: Haplothrips aculeatus Fabricius, Frankliniella tenuicornis Uzel, Frankliniella occidentalis Pergande, Frankliniella tritici Fitch, Frankliniella intonsa Trybom, Limothrips denticornis Haliday, Limothrips angulicornis Jablonowski, Limothrips cerealium Haliday, Aptinothrips rufus Gemelin, Anaphothrips obscures Műller, Stenothrips graminum Uzel, Thrips physapus Linnaeus and Aeolothrips intermedius Bagnall. According to farmers from western Romania, their losses range from 20% to 40% depending on the severity of the thrips infestation. Thrips damage is usually higher during the dry season and warmer temperature.

thrips species, varieties, winther wheat, Timiș county, damage

biology

Presentation: poster