523 Influence of Geographical Direction and Pistachio Cultivar on the Capture of Adult Pistachio Psylla by Yellow Sticky Card A. Fazeli Salmani and G.H. Davarynejad Department of Horticultural Sciences Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Iran H. Sadeghi Department of Plant Protection Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Iran Keywords: color sticky trap, monitoring, pistachio pests Abstract Pistachio psylla, Agonoscena pistaciae Burckhardt and Lauterer (Homoptera: Psyllidae) is a major pest of the cultivated pistachio trees, Pistacia vera L. in Iran. Sucking sap from leaves by both nymphs and adults reduced plant vigor, defoliation, stunting, bud drop, also producing a large amount of honey dew. Currently the main control measure of this pest is based on insecticides which are used 8-10 times per season. Monitoring the population density of the pest can determine the proper time of pesticide spraying and reduce the amount of pesticides used, and it is also needed for organic pest control strategies. Yellow sticky card traps have been shown useful to detect and gauge the relative abundance of A. pistaciae, but specific information on the effect of geographical direction and cultivar on the capture of adult pistachio psylla in the region is not known. During the growth season of 2009, an adult population of pistachio psylla was monitored at different geographical direction on ‘Ohadi’, ‘Sefid’, ‘Akbari’, ‘Ghermez’ and ‘Kale ghoochi’ commercial female cultivars of Pistacia vera L. and male tree as control in Mahvelat region (Razavi Khorasan province). Five traps were placed at the same height (2 m above the ground) and in the four cardinal directions of each tree as well as one trap in the middle of the canopy (30 traps in each replicate). After 2 weeks the trapped adults of psylla were counted. This procedure was repeated 8 times throughout the season. Data were subjected to analysis of variance. As result, there were differences among the position of yellow sticky card trap and cultivars, in terms of trapped adult psylla. The traps placed on either of two directions of south and east captured more adults than the other positions. Also, it was shown that some P. vera cultivars had significantly higher population of adult psylla throughout the season, namely ‘Sefid’, ‘Akbari’, ‘Kale ghoochi’, ‘Ghermez’ and ‘Ohadi’. INTRODUCTION Pistachio (Pistacia vera) is a subtropical plant of the Anacardiacae family and it is an important horticultural crop in Iran. Pistachio psylla (Agonoscena pistaciae) that is well known to dry-sap, is one of the most important key pests of pistachio in Iran and causes important economical yield losses, due to psylla feeding damage to aerial parts of the trees. This pest in Khorasan is too important as well as in other pistachio growing areas. The damage caused by this pest depends on various factors, namely the cultivar, irrigation system, nutritional status of the plants, stage of insect’s life and population of natural enemies of psylla. Psylla can cause damage from April to October in the area. However, its damage is not economically important until May even in high crowded populations. Sticky yellow traps can be a method for capturing adult insects, as previous studies indicated that they are attracted to yellow color. Emami (1995), Emami and Yazdani (1993) reported that yellow traps have high attraction for pistachio psylla and they studied the effect of trap shape, height and direction of trap on capturing of adult psylla. Also, Hadian and Seyedoleslami (2002) indicated that capture of adult insects by yellow traps can determine the trend of population change in comparison to egg and nymphs population. Emami (1995) investigated the effect of geographical direction and height on capturing adult psylla of pistachio and reported that population of psylla in south direction of the Proc. XXVIII th IHC – IS on Organic Horticulture: Productivity and Sustainability Eds.: I. Mourão and U. Aksoy Acta Hort. 933, ISHS 2012