Determination of Species of Cicadellidae (Hemiptera) Family in Sweet Cherry Growing Areas of Eastern Mediterranean Region

Abstract

Sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) is highly valued fruit in the world and has wide production area in Turkey. Some of the species from the family Cicadellidae can cause direct damage by sucking the sap, and indirect damage by transmitting the phytoplasmas during their feeding process on the sweet cherry trees. This study was conducted to investigate the presence of the species of Cicadellidae family in Adana (Pozantı), Niğde (Darboğaz) and Kahramanmaraş (Andırın and Central Town), where sweet cherry cultivation is carried out, through 2014-2016. Surveying was done in two period a year, in spring (May-June) and fall (October-November) on the trees and weeds. As a result of sampling, 55 species from 35 genus in Cicadellidae were found. They are 32 species from Deltocephalinae subfamily, 18 species from Typhlocybinae, 4 species from Agallinae and 1 species from Megophthalminae subfamily were identified. Among them, Psammotettix striatus (Linnaeus) was the most common species with the 45.79% in total, followed by P. provincialis (Ribaut) with 15.26%. The other species were Empoasca sp. and Asymmetrasca decedens (Paoli) with 7.15% and 6.63%, respectively. It is known that the Phytoplasmas are phloem-limited agents, so, the cicadellid species that are feeding phloem tissue of the plant can acquire the pathogen and be able to transmit the phytoplasma potentially. As a result, it could be concluded that studies are needed to determine the potential to be vector of species of Deltocephalinae determined in sweet cherry orchards.