Thrips [Insecta: Thysanoptera] in cherry orchards in Mendoza, Argentina

In the last seasons the presence of trips has been related to damages observed on cherries in Mendoza, Argentina. The damages would be produced by the oviposition of these insects on small fruits. The objective of the work was to compare the evolution of populations of the present species of trips in two orchards with different weeds handling. Samples were taken from weeds and flowers of cherry tree in two orchards with different weeds handling and the evolution of the populations of trips was analyzed. Three species of thrips were frequent in flowers of cherry tree in crops: Frankliniella australis, F. occidentalis and Thrips tabaci. These species reproduce in their flowers, being F. australis the species that reproduces more of the three. Consistent differences as far as the number of trips by flower of cherry tree in both property were not observed. This can be attributed to that the abundance of these insects in the cherry tree flowers depends on other variables such as, density of plantation, contributes by migration of neighboring areas in addition to the levels of infestation of weeds in the culture.