_____________Mun. Ent. Zool. Vol. 10, No. 1, January 2015__________ 144 INVASIVE PLANT PESTS (INSECTA AND ACARINA) OF TURKEY Sevcan Öztemiz* and Mikdat Doğanlar** * Biological Control Research Station/Adana, TURKEY. E-mail: s_oztemiz@hotmail.com ** Honorary Professor, Biological Control Research Station/ Adana, TURKEY. [Öztemiz, S. & Doğanlar, M. 2015. Invasive plant pests (Insecta and Acarina) of Turkey. Munis Entomology & Zoology, 10 (1): 144-159] ABSTRACT: Turkey with its geographical location and favorable climate has very rich fauna terms of biodiversity, and has been invaded by a number of harmful exotic plant pests. For the invasion of pest, four steps are required to complete; introduction, establishment, spread and naturalization. The invasive plant pests recorded by several works in Turkey are: 12 species from Lepidoptera; 12 species from Coleoptera; 23 species from Hemiptera; 10 species from Diptera; 17 species from Thysanoptera; 3 species from Hymenoptera; 1 species from Orthoptera; 15 species from Acarina. Their origine, introduction area, distribution in Turkey and worldwide were given in the study. KEY WORDS: Invasive, plant pests, Turkey. Insects can live in almost all ecosystems due to their highest chance of survival and ability to adapt to changing conditions. As in many countries of the world, the insects identified as invasive or exotic are quite high in Turkey. Invasive species can be defined as for any reason added afterwards to from outside of an ecosystem, and then after a certain period they have directly or indirectly affected by biological diversity in ecosystems and become a dominant species. Turkey has a rich geography at the crossroads of three continents; Asia, Europe and Africa, and is a potential of containing the appropriate properties to the establishment and spread of invasive species in terms of biological diversity. Invasive species are spread by natural and human activities. They spread with agricultural trade between countries and continents. There are also distinct pathways for aquatic and terrestrial species. Terrestrial invasive species are introduced and move around in a number of ways such as cargo shipments and containers, transport of infested plant materials, wood products, ornamental plants and pet trade. Invasive species compete with native species for habitat and food, and adversely affect biodiversity, cause to reduction or extinction of native or endemic species and disruption of ecosystems. Invasive species, as well as the ecological damage they also cause of economic loss in agricultural activities. It was reported that economic and environmental losses caused by invasive species in six countries of the world was to be 314 billion dollars per year (GISP, 2007). In addition, adversely affect human health with toxic organisms and the spread of germs and pathogens. Understanding the mechanisms of invasive species into new ecosystems, distribution of species and the effects of natural species are compulsory to combating invasive species in order to be protected from all of these negative effects. Determination of measures to solve the problem, the preparation and implementation of action plans is very important. In Turkey, whole society including especially farmers should be informed in terms of biodiversity and trained for conservation of biological diversity and the data should be transfered to future generations. The creation of databases associated with invasive and native species, endemic and endangered species will be an important step for the future of any of countries. For this purpose, in this study some common species were listed below as preliminary work. The