Investigation of the harmful and beneficial arthropods associated with Poplar species in Tehran and Alborz Provinces

The present article is the result of research conducted on arthropods fauna associated with poplars species in the Alborz Research Complex of Karaj, as well as in the National Botanical Garden of Iran and Khojir region in the periods 1990 - 2011. Field samplings were carried out using a Steiner trap, hand picking, net cloths around infected tree branches & trunks, as well as rearing immature stages of the pest in controlled conditions. In this study, 55 harmful arthropod species belonging to 27 families of 6 orders and over 37 beneficial arthropod species of 8 orders and 18 families were collected on 19 native and exotic poplar species. Among them, leaf-feeder insects (19 species); mites & sucking insects of sap aerial parts (28 species), and wood borer & root feeder insects (8 species) have been identified. Of the pests, 17 species were more important in terms of the severity of their attack. In terms of host range, on 19 poplar species, the identified poplar pests can be grouped as follows: 1-Pest species that are collected exclusively on one species of poplar. 2- Pest species with a wide host range. These pests found on more than one poplar species belong to 1-4 poplar taxonomic sections.