Vasilyeva Ju.
PhD (Agriculture), assistant professor, Kharkiv National Agrarian University
named after V. V. Dokuchaev, Kharkiv, Ukraine
Lezhenina I.
PhD (Biology), assistant professor, Kharkiv National Agrarian University named
after V. V. Dokuchaev, Kharkiv, Ukraine
TO THE ISSUE OF THE CULTURAL AMARANTH ENTOMOCENOSIS
FORMATION
Introduction. It is well known, that amaranth grain played an important role as a
food of people in highly developed ancient civilizations of Central America.
In Mexico, before the Spanish conquest, the Aztecs produced 20 thousand tons of
amaranth grain annually [5]. After colonization of this territory
Spaniards have banned
to grow amaranth, because the natives used it in religious ceremonies, therefore in the
17th and 18th centuries it was cultivated in only a few small agricultural districts. Only
in the 20th century the amaranth, as an agricultural crop, again arose interest. In the
sixties of the 20
th
century several countries from different continents have been
engaged in its cultivation. It was from Central America that the cultivation of amaranth
spread to other parts of America, to Africa, to Southeast Asia and Europe. Now it is
used in animal husbandry, food industry, and pharmaceuticals.
Amaranth attracts many insects, among which a significant proportion belongs to
phytophages. An amaranth entomocomplex formation has much in common in
different countries. The study of a complex of insects, which are attracted by amaranth,
will allow to assess its role in the relevant crop rotations, and the experience of different
countries will help to effectively regulate the pest populations.
For the last 10 years we have been studying the entomofauna of amaranth in the
eastern Forest-steppe of Ukraine. The aim of this paper is to reveal the main regularities
of formation of amaranth entomocoenosis in different regions of its cultivation, to
determine the pest complex and the role of amaranth in field crop rotations.
Entomofauna of cultivated amaranth. Obviously, the analysis of insects
associated with amaranth, we start from the center of its cultivation, namely from
Mexico. In Mexico, the study of insects associated with amaranth has been started after
resumption of its cultivation in the 1980s of the 20
th
century. With the increase of area
of amaranth crop, the number of trophically associated pest species grew.
The harmful entomofauna of amaranth cultivars was studied, first of all, by
entomologists specializing in agriculture.
In addition to the species composition and biology of the main phytophages, much
attention was paid to the assessment of their harm and to the control methods.
The lists were compiled, where harmful insects were divided into three groups:
pests of leaves and inflorescences stalk pests and root pests.
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