Seasonal activity of the red-striped soft scale insect, Pulvinaria tenuivalvata (Hemiptera:Coccidae) infesting sugarcane fields at Qena, Egypt

The red-striped soft scale insect, Pulvinaria tenuivalvata (Newstead) (Hemiptera : Coccidae) is a serious pest on sugarcane. As a basic study for developing future management of this scale species, seasonal activity of different stages of this insect was carried out through two successive seasons (2006/2007 and 2007/2008) at Esna district, Qena governorate. The obtained results showed that, P. tenuivalvata had four peaks occurred in mid of July, mid-September, beginning of November and beginning of December per season. The second season of study cleared that the total population of this insect was higher in comparison to the first season of investigation, which may due to the influence of favourable factors. The combined effect of the tested weather factors was responsible about some in the total population. The percentages of explained variance (E.V.) indicate that all tested variables were together responsible for (30.6 and 42%) during the two seasons of study, respectively.