Ecological Studies on Aphid Species Infesting Different Leguminous Vegetable Plant Varieties with Regard to their Seasonal Abundance

The present work was conducted to survey and study the seasonal abundance of different aphid insects infesting some leguminous plants varieties (broad bean, pea, cowpea and bean plants) in Diarb—Nigm district, Sharkia. Governorate, Egypt during 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons. The aphids species were collected by using plant samples from leguminous plants. Results showed that aphid species infested leguminous vegetable plants were Aphis craccivora Kock, Alyzus persicae (Sulz) Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris) and Aphis gossypii Glov. Two peaks of high population density for A. craccivora, ill, persicae and A. pisum occurred on broad bean and pea plants during the fourth week of January and the first & second week of March. While in case of cowpea and bean plants two peaks of population density for A. craccivora, persicae and A. gossypii were recorded at the second week of July and the second week of August, respectively. Varieties such as broad bean, pea, cowpea and bean plants influenced the population density of aphids insects, Improved Giza 3 broad bean, Mastar 13 pea, Cream7 cowpea and Bronco bean varieties showed lowest mean number of insects/sample. Chemical analysis results showed a positive relationship between protein & carbohydrate contents and aphid insects infestations on all tested leguminous plant varieties, while a reverse relationship between pH values & aphid insects infestations and also with quantity of yield was also shown.