Page 5 - Volume 1, Issue 2, July 2008

New plant pests and weeds in Greece 57
on pistachio and terebinth (Pistacia tere-
binthus). (Katsoyannos & Stathas, 1995). It
establishes on young stems, on the fruit
and the leaves of the trees and can cause
deformities and drying of the plants.
In June 2001 the scale insect Lepidos-
aphes gloverii (Packard) (Diaspididae)
was observed on orange trees in the area
of Gastouni (Peloponnisos). The insect
infests mainly the upper surface of the
leaves, the fruit and to a lesser extent the
stems (Stathas, 2003a).
The species Eriococcus coccineus
Cockerell (Eriococcidae) was first record-
ed to infest Echinocactus grusonii plants in
glasshouses in the area of Acharnai (Atti-
ca) in October 2000. Young nymphs of this
insect are found on the fleshy part of the
cactus (Stathas, 2003b).
In addition, a list of the scale insects re-
corded in Greece until 2006 has been pre-
sented by Milonas et al. in 2007. Current-
ly, the number of known scale insects has
reached 168. Six new records were includ-
ed: Heterococcus nudus (Green) Pseudo-
coccidae, Asterodiaspis variolosa (Ratze-
burg) Asterolecanidae, Lecanopsis turcica
(Bodenheimer) Coccidae, Phenacoccus
hordei (Lindeman) Pseudococcidae, Po-
liaspis cycadis Comstock Diaspididae and
Orthesia yasushi Kuwana Ortheziidae.
Insects of the family Psyllidae are con-
sidered at present as the most important
pests of pistachio. They are new pests of
pistachio in Greece causing the character-
istic symptoms of Psyllidae: abnormal de-
velopment of buds and shoots, prema-
ture leaf drop, formation of honeydew
and very weak appearance of the plants.
In Greece, four species of this family are
found to infest pistachios: Agonoscena
pistaciae Burckhardt et Lauterer (Laute-
rer et al., 1998), A. targionii (Lichtenstein)
(Ζartaloudis et al., 1996), A. cisti Puton (B.
Polymerou, Personal communication) and
Megagonoscena gallicola Burckhardt et
Lauterer (Souliotis & Tsourgianni, 1999).
Α. pistaciae was recorded in West Korin-
thia and is the dominant species in the ar-
eas of Fthiotis, Boeotia, Euboea and Attica.
A. targionii was found in Halkidiki in loca-
tions where pistachio is one of the main
cultivations. The remaining species ( A. cis-
ti and M. gallicola) are of no economic im-
portance as their population and activity
in pistachio orchards are low Souliotis &
Tsourgianni, 2000).
Trioza alacris Flor (Triozidae) was found
on Appolo bay plants ( Laurus nobilis) in
2004 in Attica to cause a serious infesta-
tion of the leaves (Tsagarakis & Papadou-
lis, 2004).
Metcalfa pruinosa (Say) (Flatidae) was
first observed in Greece in 2001 in the
area of Preveza (Drosopoulos et al., 2004)
on citrus and olive trees (first record on
olive). Currently, the insect has spread to
other areas infesting fruit trees, grape-
vines, ornamental plants and wild plants
(Souliotis et al., 2008). The insect sucks the
plant sap and excretes plenty of honey-
dew where sooty mold develops. As a re-
sult the plants weaken and eventually die.
Chemical control of this pest is difficult. Its
control currently relies on the use of para-
sitoid natural enemies.
Pemphigus fuscicornis (Koch) (Pem-
phigidae) is a root living aphid that was
found on sugarbeet for the first time in
1985 in Imathia (Ioannidis, 1997) causing
severe damage to plants.
1.2. Thysanoptera
The banded greenhouse thrip, Herci-
nothrips femoralis (Reuter) (Thripidae),
was recorded for the first time in 2004
in greenhouse-grown organic banana in
the area of Sitia (northeastern Crete). Ba-
nana fruits were severely damaged by the
thrips and a typical smoky-red discolora-
tion of the fruit was observed. During 2005
H. femoralis was also found causing severe
damage in conventional banana planta-
tions in Arvi, the main banana-growing