A Review on Distribution, Biology and Management Practice of Russian Wheat Aphid Diuraphis noxia (Mordvilko) (Hemiptera:Aphididae), in Ethiopia

Abstract

Ethiopian agriculture sector is predominantly important for the economy of the country which contributes about 50% to the total GDP and 90% of exports item (Haile and Raja, 2012).Several species of fruit crops are grown in Ethiopia including citrus, grape, pineapple, banana, papaya, avocado, mango and temperate fruits like peach and apple. The major reason for the low yield is that the crop is produced under numerous constraints, including insect pests (Alemu et al., 2012).

Russian Wheat Aphids (RWA) Diuraphis noxia (Mordvilko, Hemiptera: Aphididae) is a significant pest problem in many areas in the world (Anna-Maria et al., 2003).The Russian wheat aphid, Diuraphis noxia (Mordvilko) (Hemiptera: Aphididae), is the major insect that reduces barley yields, and it has a worldwide distribution including the Middle East, USA, South Africa, and Ethiopia .Understanding of the epidemiology of aphid-borne viruses is very important for the development of appropriate management strategies (Simon  et al., 2009). Russian wheat aphid is an important pest of wheat and barley in several countries of North Africa and West Asia, e.g., Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Yemen, Turkey and Iran. Host plant resistance is the most economical and practical means of controlling this insect. Field The green peach aphid, M. persicae and the mustard aphid, L. erysimi were the most abundantly found aphid L. erysimi is an important pest of Brassicaceae including broccoli, cabbage, Chinese broccoli, daikon, mustard cabbage and radish, and is a vector of 10 non-persistent viruses (Blackman and Easton, 2000).

M. persicae is an established pest of pepper and found thorough out the world (Blackman and Eastop, 2000). It has been reported as a vector of EPMV from laboratory studies (Tameru, 2004) and is a well known vector of several other persistently and non persistently transmitted viruses. Among the identified aphid species, Hayhurstia atriplicis (L..), Hyperomyzus lactucae (L.), Schoutedenia ramulensis Rübsaamen and Tetraneura spp. were not reported so far from Ethiopia. Aphis gossypii Glover, M. persicae and M. euphorbiae have also been reported earlier from Ethiopia on pepper (Simon et al., 2009).

From the identified aphid species, S. ramulensis and Tetraneura spp. occurred less frequently than the other species in the collected samples S. ramulensis was recorded only from Awassa, while Tetraneura spp. from Ziway There is diverse cropping system at both the study locations, where maize, beans, pea, cabbage, onion,tomato, wheat, teff, barley and potato were the major crops found around the pepper fields (Simon et al., 2009).