Impact of Weather Parameters on Abundance of Liriomyza Cicerina (Agromyzidae) in the Northwest of Tunisia

This work carried out the first investigations on the chickpea leaf miner (Liriomyza cicerina) population dynamics and the assessment of its damage on both winter and spring chickpea crops (Cicerarietinum L.) in the North of Tunisia. The study was conducted, according to a Split Plot Design, during the cropping seasons 2015 and 2016 in Beja (Northwest of Tunisia). Five chickpea varieties were used: three winter varieties (cv. Beja1, cv. Nour and cv. Nayer) and two spring varieties (cv. Amdoun1 and an advanced line X07TH106-A3). Results showed that L. cicerina accomplished three annual generations with a clear, significant impact of the environmental conditions, especially the climatic data, on the abundance and distribution of the pest for both winter and spring varieties. This insect pest was very abundant during flowering/pods setting stages, reaching mean values of 40 adults/trap.