Biological investigations on eucalyptus gall wasps which have damaged eucalyptus saplings growed in Sinop-Bektaşağa forest nursery

Species of the Eucalyptus genus are native plant species of Australia and its surroundings. Since the development of Eucalyptus species E. camaldulensis and E. grandis is fast in Turkey, it is used in industrial afforestation studies in the Mediterranean and Aegean regions of the country where the temperate climate zone prevails. It has been seen that these plant species, which were first grown in Turkey in 1885, since 2000, the natural species of the Australian continent, L.invasa and O.maskelli, made a sudden entry into our country and started to harm the plants. It has been observed that Leptocybe invasa, one of the pests, forms a kind of tuber on the leaf midrib, petiole and shoots of the plant, while the other gall wasps, Ophelimus maskelli, forms a tuber in the form of spots on the leaf surface of the plant. It has been determined that after the intense and repetitive attacks of these gall wasps, a significant decrease in development and habitus deterioration occurred in eucalyptus compared to the same old species. It was reported that the exotic species L.invasa and O.maskelli reached Eucalyptus camaldulensis and Eucalyptus grandis in the Black Sea region in 2020. Since the harmful gall bees have just entered the region, their biology in the region has not yet been determined. In this thesis, the biology of L.invasa and O.maskelli in the region was determined with the help of colored sticky traps. According to the chlorophyll amounts in our study, contamination of L. invasa and O. maskelli caused more than 50% loss in chlorophyll values of eucalyptus seedlings. In addition, growth losses of eucalyptus seedlings where gall wasps were damaged were also observed.