No abstract

Thirteen Armillaria isolates, collected from various geographical areas in tropical Africa and previously characterized by cultural morphology, pairing tests and isozyme analysis, were evaluated using the polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). DNA regions corresponding to the intergenic spacer (IGS) and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) were amplified and analyzed by restriction enzyme digestion. The IGS amplification products were about 875 by long and uniform in length among the isolates. The amplified-ITS region showed two different lengths corresponding to two groups. The first group included the isolates believed to belong to A. mellea ssp. africana and two Kenyan isolates (K11 and K12) belonging to a yet unnamed biological species. The second group included isolates identified as A. heimii and a Tanzanian isolate (T7). Each length variant of the ITS showed distinct RFLP banding patterns. Digestion with EcoRI confirmed the two polymorlphic groups while the endonucleases Alul and Ndell discriminated the A. mellea isolates from the Kenyan isolates K11 and K12. In addition, the latter enzyme showed a slight dissimilarity between the A. heimii isolates from Western and Eastern Africa (C1 and Z1). Digestion with Hinfl cleaved the isolates of A. heimii into two sub-groups corresponding to the heterothallic and homothallic forms. This endonuclease also indicated that the isolate T7, originating from Tanzania, was clearly similar to the heterothallic species A. heimii. Data presented support the maintenance of three distinct species of Armillaria in tropical Africa with A. heimii as a variable species, the isolates of which were separated in accordance with their sexual system. The results indicate that PCR-RFLP can be used as a simple and speedy taxonomical tool for the ecological studies of Armillaria species. Armillaria is a genus of root-infecting fungi with worldwide distribution consisting of a number of distinct species. The number of these species in the world is about 30. Taxonomical studies of African Armillaria have included a wide range of investigation techniques such as observations of cultural characteristics (vegetative mat morphology, production of subterranean rhizomorphs, morphology of fruit bodies, and monospore isolates obtained in vitro) and pairing tests

The date palm scale (DPS) Parlatoria blanchardi is a serious pest due to the damage it inflicts on its host tree (Phoenix dactylifera). To develop an effective control against DPS in arid regions, it is essential to know its bio-ecology including population dynamics and climatic factors influencing the duration and timing of life history and also the densities of different phenological stages (crawlers, first and second instars nymphs, adult males, and adult females). Monitoring of biological cycle and population dynamics of the pest were achieved through weekly counts of DPS densities on leaflets sampled at different position of date palm trees in an oasis of Ouargla region (Algerian Sahara Desert). Within this hyper-arid region, DPS established four generations per year, the most important was the spring generation. Two overlapping generations occurred in spring-early summer and two in autumn-early winter; these two pairs of generations were interspersed by two phases of high-mortality rates, the first corresponds to winter cold and the second refers to the extreme heat of summer. Statistical analysis of the effects of the studied climatic conditions (minimum, maximum and mean temperatures, precipitation, humidity, wind, rain days, and climatic indices) on the DPS densities at different phenological stages showed great variability from one stage to another. Among these, adult females were the most affected by climate factors. For the total DPS population, high values of minimum temperatures negatively affected population density, while high maximum temperatures, hygrometry, and De Martonne aridity index showed a positive influence.

Taux d'infestation et morphologie de la pyrale des dattes Ectomyelois ceratoniae (Zeller) sur diffé rentes varié té s du palmier dattier Phoenix dactylifera (L.

No abstract