The harmful entomofauna of woody plants in Slovakia.

Abstract

Research on mapping of the entomofauna and determination of its qualitative structure was carried out in the city of Nitra during the years 2003-2006. The research was focused on insect pests damaging woody species in urban conditions. The monitored areas included several categories of the city's greenery. The material and information (damage symptoms, imagoes, larvae, etc.) assembled during field work on the selected areas were analyzed by laboratory methods and using available liter- ature sources. Altogether, 225 species of insect pests were detected. Of this amount number, non-indig- enous species comprised cca 8%. The detected pests were mainly insects of the order Lepidop- tera .Some non-indigenous insect species occur in the town in great numbers that often reach disastrous levels. The species recorded include Cameraria ohridella (Deschka & Dimi c, 1986), Phyllonorycter platani (Staudinger, 1870), Hyphantria cunea (DRURY, 1773), and Dasyneuragledits iae (Osten Sack- en, 1866). Besides these important species, we also determined indigenous polyphagous butterfly spe- cies from the family Limantriidae. The appearance of these species (called defoliators) in increasing numbers is causing massive injuries to woody plants in urban conditions.