دکتر محمد رضا زرگران

This research was conducted in 2020 in order to investigating the species diversity and abundance of oribatid mites in the oak and hornbeam forests of Arasbaran (Ahar and Kaleibar) in East Azerbaijan Province. Soil sampling was carried out in May and June. Oribatid mites present in soil samples were separated using Berlese funnels and clarified in relative solution, followed by preparation of microscope slides. After identification, counting, diversity and evenness indices (Shannon and Simpson), as well as species richness were calculated using Ecological Methodology 6.0 software. In general, 29 species of Oribatid mites from 27 genera and 23 families were identified in this study: Cosmochthonius lanatus Michael, Sphaerochthonius splendidus Berlese, Steganacarus (Tropacarus) carinatus Koch, Papillacarus pseudoaciculatus Mahunka, Rhysotritia ardua Koch, Nothrus biciliatus Koch, Hermanniella septentrionalis Berlese, Plesiodamaeus ornatus Pérez-Íñígo, Belba sp., Xenillus setosus Grobler, Ozman & Cobanoglu, Fosseremus quadripertitus Grandjean, Rhinoppia obsoleta Paoli, Ramusella (Ramusella) puertomonttensis Hammer, Ramusella (R.) sengbuschi Tokyoensis, Ramusella (R.) sengbuschi Str., Graptoppia (G.) sundensis acuta Ayyildiz, Rectoppia sp., Suctobelella sp., Austrocarabodes (Austrocarabodes) foliaceisetus Murvanidze & Weigmann, Tectocepheus velaus Michael, Eupelops acromios Haman, Berlesezetes aegypticus Balogh & Mahunka, Oribatula (O.) tibialis allifera Subías, Protoribates (P.) paracapucinus Mahunka, Scheloribates fimbriatus Thor., Ceratozetes conjunctus Mihelčič, Punctoribates angulatus Bayartogtokh, Grobler & Cobanoglu, Galumna sp., Pilogalumna sp. The highest abundance of mites in Ahar and Kaleibar belonged to Scheloribtes fimbriatus and Oribaiula tibilis, respectively. The calculated species diversity indices in the Kaleibar region during June were higher than those in May. The diversity and species richness of oribatid mites were higher in Kaleibar with oak vegetation, which could be due to the higher humidity and acidity of the soil compared to Ahar.

One of the main destruction factors of oak forests is the oak leaf roller Tortrix viridana L. which causes a lot of damage to these woods by feeding leaves and buds of oak trees. The purpose of study was to investigate the population changes of this pest in different altitudes. This research was conducted in 2018 in Perdanan and Mirabad. In each region, in three elevation classes, transects with 100 meters’ intervals, and in each elevation class, 30 individuals of Quercus infectoria Olivier, which were located along the specific transect and in terms of appearance approximately similar, measured. In each tree, four branches were selected in four main directions (each direction of a length of 50 cm) and the pest larvae counted and the diameter of the branches were measured. Data were analyzed by SPSS 18 software and comparison of means was performed using Duncan's multiple range test. Results showed that according to the climatic diversity of two regions, the number of T. viridana larvae in the Perdanan was higher than Mirabad. Also, the number of larvae was recorded for both areas in the 1200-1300 meters’ elevation, which shows that the favorable conditions for larvae activity. The elevation class had no effect on distribution of pest in directions of the tree crown. The highest number of larvae in all three elevation classes was recorded in the eastern direction of the tree and its lowest amount were recorded in the west direction.

Oak gallwasps (Family: Cynipidae) are among the most important insects associated with oak trees. To identify the parasitoid communities of gall wasps on Quercus infectoria Oliv., galls were sampled in October 2018 due to the collection of asexual generations of oak gall wasps. Sampling was carried out at two altitudes (1300-1500 and 1500-1700 m) in the Pidaranan and Mirabad areas in 2018. Parasitoid species were identified, and their abundance, species diversity, and richness indices were calculated using Ecological Methodology ver. 3.0 software. The means of the treatments were compared between altitude slopes using an independent student t-test with SPSS ver. 21 software. Results showed that 20 species of gall wasps and 10 species of parasitoid wasps belonging to five families of the order Hymenoptera were collected and identified. Of the 20 species of oak galls, 15 had parasitoids. The two species Andricus coriarius Hartig and Andricus coriariformis Melika et al. had the highest number of parasitoid wasps. Among the parasitoid wasps, the most frequent species was Aulogymnus gallarum L., which was introduced as the main parasitoid in at least 10 gall wasp species with high population density. The mean values of parasitoid species diversity and evenness indices for gall wasp species on Q. infectoria in different regions and altitude slopes were not significantly different from each other.

The brown tail moth (Euproctis chrysorrhoea L.) is a significant leaf-eating pest that affects oak trees in the Arasbaran forests of Iran. This study aimed to investigate the biological characteristics, distribution, and demographic changes of this pest. The research was conducted in eight sites located in Ahar and Horand counties, East Azarbaijan province of Iran, during 2020-2021. For the study, 20 oak trees (Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl.) were chosen from each site, and 10 wintering nests were collected from each tree and taken to the laboratory for analysis. In the lab, the overwintering larvae were counted and weighed using a digital scale. The researchers also measured the width of the head capsule of the larvae and studied the life cycle of the pest in field conditions. The analysis of variance test was conducted to assess the difference between the eight sites concerning the average number and weight of the larvae in the wintering nests. The comparison of the averages was performed using Duncan's test. The results showed that E. chrysorrhoea has five larval instars, with the majority of the larvae in the wintering nests belonging to the third instar (around 90%). All the sample oak trees from the studied sites were infected with this pest, with several larval nests seen on them. The study found that the average number and weight of larvae inside the nests in the three sites of Horand county were significantly higher than the five sites in Ahar county. The control methods applied in Ahar county, including cutting and collecting larval nests, may have had an impact on reducing the number of brown tail moth larvae compared to Horand county.

Euproctis chrysorrhoea L. is the key pests of Arasbaran forests and has very high distribution. This research was conducted in order to investigating species diversity and richness of the arthropods related to wintering larvae of pest in eight regions of Ahar and Horand in East Azarbaijan in 2019. Number of 20 oak trees were selected in each area and 10 nests of wintering larvae were collected from each tree and transferred to the laboratory. Isolation of arthropods inside larval nests was done in the laboratory and species richness indices, Shannon and Simpson diversity of them at different elevation classes were also calculated. In this research, the number of seven species of arthropods on the overwintering larvae of E. chrysorrhoea were collected and identified as follows: Brachymeria intermedia Nees, Monodontomerus aerus Walker, Pimpla turionellae L., Meteorus obsoletus Wesmael, Telenemus sp., Tachina praeceps Meigen and Thomisas sp. The highest number of arthropods (six species) was observed in Niagh area in Horand. The highest frequency was belong to Telenemus sp. Diversity and species richness of arthropods of E. chrysorrhoea was less in different regions of Ahar than Horand. So that the highest and lowest values of Shannon's diversity index with values of 2.56 and 1.04, as well as the highest and lowest values of Simpson index with values of 0.76 and 0.31, respectively, were recorded in Niagh in Horand and Goravan in Ahar. Results showed that the height above sea level did not affect diversity indices of arthropods related to wintering larvae.

Myzocallis coryli (Goetze) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is a major hazelnut pest in Iran. This aphid attacks the stems and leaves of Corylus avellana L. hazelnut trees, and as the population grows, it causes the leaves of hazelnut trees to dry and fall, reducing the quality of the nuts. The use of entomopathogenic fungi in the management of hazelnut aphid has been prioritized in order to reduce negative environmental consequences. The isolates IRAN 715C, DEMI001, M14, and V245 from the fungus Metarhizium anisopliae were employed in this work to assess on the adults of M. coryli. To assess the toxicity of four isolates, the Probit tool in SPSS 21 software was employed with a fatal dose of 50% of the LC50. The LC50 values for DEMI001, IRAN715C, M14, and V245 isolates on adults of M. coryli in laboratory and field settings were 1.9×106, 2.34×106, 0.469×106, 1.79×106 and 7150×106, 101000×106, 4860×106, 14700×106 con/ml, respectively. According to the findings of this investigation, isolated M14 is particularly efficient on adult filbert aphids. In addition, a larger concentration of fungal suspensions is required in the field to suppress adult aphids than in the laboratory. The additive or synergistic effects were not seen when assessing the interaction between two effective isolates. As a result, the use of isolate M14 in the hazelnut aphid integrated management program (IPM) is suggested.

Parasitoid wasps are one of the natural enemies and major causes of mortality of Oak gall wasps (Cynipidae). This study was conducted during 2018-2019 in Rabat and Vavan regions (Sardasht –West-Azerbaijan) in order to identify the sexual generation of oak gall wasp’s species on the Persian oak Quercus brantii and their natural enemies. The galls were reared to collect gall wasps and parasitoids in laboratory. Then, Species diversity, evenness and species richness (with Rarefaction method) were calculated with Ecological Mothology 3.0 software. 14 parasitoid wasps belonged to six families of Hymenoptera were identified. Bootaniomyia dorsalis had the highest frequency among collected parasitoid wasps from Rabat and Vavan in two years. The mean of diversity and evenness indexes in 2018 and 2019 in two studied regions showed that the mean of diversity between Rabat and Vavan had a significant difference in both years. The Shannon diversity index in Rabat was more than Vavan. The highest richness of parasitoids was recorded in Rabat in 2019.

Oak gall wasps among food chains in the Zagros forest ecosystem are highly dependent on these trees. The gall wasps of the Cynipinae subfamily with 1380 species create the most attractive herbaceous plant galls with a very complex structure in the world. In this study, the distribution and diversity of oak gall wasps species, the samplings of oak gall wasps species based on the sexual and asexual generations were carried out in May and October of the year 2019, respectively. The collected gall wasps from Ghasem-rash, Shalmash, and Kani-rash regions were transferred to the laboratory by paper envelopes. 50 galls of each type were collected separately and placed in breeding containers that were closed with a net and could be properly ventilated. Shannon and Simpson diversity and uniformity indices as well as species richness were also calculated. In this study, 22 species of gall wasps, belonging to the genera Andricus, Chilaspis, Cynips, and Neuroterus (5 species of sexual offspring in spring and 17 species of asexual offspring in summer-autumn) were identified. The number of 18, 14, and 15 oak gall wasps species were collected from Ghasem-rash, Shalmash, and Kani-rash, respectively. Neuroterus numismalis was the most abundant in all regions. The highest species richness of the oak gall wasps species was recorded in Ghasem-rash. The calculated indices of species diversity and uniformity were the same in all regions and did not have significant differences.

Pests are one of the most dangerous factors in the development and cultivation of Poplar. These trees are severely reduced in terms of quantity and quality of the wood products and suffer severe damage due to the damage of harmful insects. This study was conducted to collect and identify important poplar pests in three plantations located in Urmia, Salmas and Khoy and their demographic changes by sampling Poplar pests using methods such as light trap, net trap and direct capture. In each plantation, 30 trees were sampled and the species richness of the poplar pests was calculated by the rarefaction method and their species diversity was calculated using Shannon and Simpson diversity indices. The important identified pests were: dusky clearwing (Paranthrene tabaniformis Rott.), Chaitophorus populi L., puss moth (Cerura vinula L.), Amorpha populi (L.), poplar spiral gall aphid (Pemphigus spirothecae Pass.), Melanophila picta (Pall.), Monosteria unicostata (Muls.& Rey), poplar woolly aphid (Phloemyzus passerini Sign.), Melasoma populi (L.), Capnodis miliaris (Klug.), and poplar minnow moth (Lithocolletis populifoliella Tr.). The values of diversity and evenness indices calculated in all three regions did not have a significant difference at the level of 5%, which showed the climate did not affect these indices. The poplar minnow moth was considered to be the most destructive pest of the poplar cultivations in West Azerbaijan and its activity on various poplar colonies was significant.

The greatest damage to hazelnut is due to its pests. Filbert aphid Myzocallis coryli is one of the important pests of this tree. In order to reduce the population of hazelnut aphids, which causes severe damage to this plant, the use of biological control method based on insect pathogenic fungi in laboratory and field conditions is purposed. In this study, the effects of four isolates DEMI001, IRAN 715C, M14, V245 of M. anisopliae were used and evaluated on the second instar nymphs in laboratory (25±1 °C, 65±5% relative humidity and photoperiod 16: 8 hours dark: light) and field conditions (30±3 °C, 55±6% relative humidity and photoperiod 14:10 dark hours: Ligh). In order to evaluate the effects of four isolates from the lethal concentration for 50% of the population (LC50) probit analyses program of SPSS-21 software was used. The LC50 value achieved from the effect of, IRAN 715C, DEMI001, M14 and V245 isolates on the second instar nymphs of the aphid in laboratory and field conditions were 5. 13 ×107, 3.00 ×106, 3 . 09 ×107, 1.11 ×106 (spores/ml) and 5. 03 ×107, 1.81 ×106, 0.43 ×106, 1.5×106 (spores/ml), respectively. The results of this study showed that the isolate M14 is more effective on the second instar nymphs of this aphid. Also, for controlling the aphids’ nymphs in field conditions, a higher concentration of fungal suspension is required compared to experimental conditions. In evaluate interaction between two isolates additive or synergistic effect was not observed.

This research was conducted to study the effect of implementation forest protected plan on quantitative and qualitative characteristics, extension of Loranthus europaeus and regeneration in Salas-babajani’s Forest stands. For this purpose, in the protected and unprotected region, 40 hectares area with similar physiography and floristic condition in a range of 1250 to 1550 meters above sea level, were selected. 40 circular sample plots with 1200 m2 area in a 100*100-meter inventory grid was established in each of them. In each sample plot, the general specification of the location of the sample plot such as slope, altitude, aspect, species type, quantitative characteristics of tree (diameter at breast height, small and large diameter of the crown) measured. Independent t-test and chi-square test were used to compare quantitative and qualitative data, respectively. According to the results of this study, Quercus brantii and Crataegus sp. had the highest and lowest percentage of mixing in the forest stands of the study area, respectively. The mean of crown diameter, the percentage of healthy trees, average sprout number and the average number of Loranthus europaeus in the polluted trees in protected area were higher than unprotected area. The results of this research indicated that the forest conservation-based management has positive effect on quantitative and qualitative characteristics in protected forests and emphasized the necessity of conservation, regeneration and development of these forests.

The induced galls by oak gall wasps were collected from various oak forests of Iranian province of West Azerbaijan in the regions of Ghabre-Hossein، Mir-Abad، Vavan، Shalmash، Rabat and Dar-Ghabr during from April to November 2009. The optimum number of samples was found to be 40 oak trees. In each tree، as a sampling unit، all of the existing galls were counted. The species richness of oak gall wasps in the West Azerbaijan province was measured and the parameters such as Simpson’s، Shannon’s H''، and Sorensen similarity indexes were calculated. In this study، 35 species of oak gall wasps on the oak tree species of Quercus infectoria، Q. brantii and Q. libani were identified. Most galls were observed on Q. infectoria. All of the collected oak gall wasp species belonged to the genera Andricus Hartig، Cynips L.، Neuroterus Hartig، Biorhiza Westwood، Pseudoneuroterus Kinsey، Chilaspis Mayr and Aphelonyx Mayre. The genus Andricus included 23 species of oak gall wasps. The highest Simpson and Shannon indexes were recorded for the spring galls of Mir-Abad and for the fall galls of Ghabre-Hossein and Dar-Ghabr regions. The Sorensen similarity index reached its peak for the spring galls (sexual generation of oak gall wasps) of Ghabre-Hossein and Mir-Abad and for the fall galls (asexual generation of oak gall wasps) of Ghabre-Hossein and Dar-Ghabr. The distribution of oak species and subspecies، and geographical and climatic aspects are believed to be among the key factors for the species diversity of oak gall wasps.