Hawaiian flower thrips, thrips hawaiiensis (Morgan, 1913), associated with mango and pomelo in Ato Belen's Farm in San Pablo, Laguna

• Main Author: Bagaoisan, Mary Queen R.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2018
• Subjects: Biology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/3016
• Institution: De La Salle University

Ato Belens Farm is an integrated organic agricultural land situated in San Pablo, Laguna. The farmland produces high quality fruit trees such as mango, pomelo, rambutan, lanzones and vegetables. The study aimed to identify thrips associated with mango var Carabao and pomelo var Magallanes. Ten mango and ten pomelo trees of different ages were randomly selected out of the fifteen trees in the selected study site and were monitored twice a month for thrips infestation from November 2017 to March 2018. Thrips samples were taken from leaves and flowers of fruit trees by shaking and beating leaves and flowers on white illustration board. Representative specimens were preserved in ethanol, cleared, and mounted on slides using Canada balsam and examined under Nikon Eclipse Ci-E microscope. Findings of the study showed that Thrips hawaiiensis (Morgan) was the only species of thrips found infesting mango and pomelo in the selected site at Ato Belens nine-hectare orchard. Thrips hawaiiensis is an invasive, polyphagous species of thrips that was previously reported as pest of banana, mango and vegetables in the Philippines. Pomelo trees recorded the highest number of thrips and analysis using students t-test showed that there was a significant difference in the total number of thrips collected from mango and pomelo. Flowers of pomelo harbored more thrips than leaves and the number of thrips counts were higher between the months of December and March. Moreover, there was a moderately high linear relationship between thrips population on plants and temperature and this finding supports previous studies that development of different life stages of Thrips hawaiiensis had significant linear relationship with temperature. Surveillance of thrips on mango, pomelo and other fruit trees grown in the Ato Belens Farm is recommended.