SEASONAL ABUNDANCE OF GREEDY SCALE (HOMOPTERA, DIASPIDIDAE) AND ASSOCIATED PARASITOIDS ON TARAIRE (BEILSCHMIEDIA-TARAIRI)

Greedy scale, Hemiberlesia rapax (Comstock). is an important quarantin e pest of kiwifruit, Actinidia deliciosa (A. Chevalier.) C. F. Liang & A. R. Ferguson. Scale infest kiwifruit by aerial invasion of crawlers from adjacent host plants such as taraire, Beilschmiedia tarairi Bent ham & Hooker. A study on the ecology of greedy scale on taraire measur ed scale abundance and parasitism by a complex of 3 parasitoids, Encar sia citrina (Craw), Signiphora merceti (Malenotti), and Signiphora fla vella (Girault) over 3 seasons. Greedy scale was found to have 2 gener ations each year. Scale populations remained low (14-38 scale per 100 leaves) over 3 successive generations when parasitism rates remained s teady (16-27 parasitoids per 100 scale). Scale populations increased 7 -fold in the 4th winter generation when rates of parasitism dropped to low levels (4 parasitoids per 100 scale). Scale populations remained at high levels (303-356 scale per 100 leaves) over the nest 2 generati ons causing massive invasion of scale into the adjacent kiwifruit orch ard. This was despite tile resurgence in the rates of parasitism (13-2 9 parasitoids per 100 scale).