The insect predator complex in winter wheat crops was studied in order to understand the ecological role played by polyphagous predator in intensive farming system. Is well known that coccinellid beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) are voracious predators of many insect pest, amoung which can mention winter wheat pests (aphids, thrips). Amoung 5000 species described worldwide, only 23 species are reported in Romania (ANDRIEV & CHIMIȘLIU, 2003). Taking into account the lack of information on this family of extremely important predators, an extensive faunal survey was conducted in winter wheat crop in Timiș County, Romania. The aimed of this paper is to assess the species richness and distribution of coccinellid in 5 winter wheat varieties. Coccinellids were collected from mid April to late July, 2016 – 2017. The monitoring of coccinellids adults and larvae was made using colored sticky traps and direct field counts. Coccinellidae familiy form the most abundent family of predators – compresing 38, 04%. During the investigation 11 species of predatory coccinellids were collected from winter wheat crops from western part of Romania, namely: Chilocorus bipustulatus, Adalia bipunctata, Adalia decimpunctata, Calvia quatordecimguttata, Coccinella septempunctata, Harmonia axyridis, Adonia variegata, Hippodamia tredecimpunctata, Propylaea quatordecimpunctata, Psyllobora vigintiduopunctata and Scymnus frontalis. Adults and larvae of Coccinella septempunctata were the most abundent species found in the study.

coccinelids, pests, winter wheat, Western Romania, crops

biology

Presentation: poster