Korenchuk Y. Scarabaeidae Phytophages of Young Plantations of Scots Pine in Forest Nurseries, Features of Biology and Population Control in the Central Forest-Steppe of Ukraine

The dissertation establishes biological and ecological features of the beetle complex. It is established that according to the indicators of female pupae mass, functional activity of gonads and fertility of females of pedunculate oak leaves is a substrate that optimizes the vital functions of females. In comparison with other deciduous species, the real fertility of females fed on oak leaves exceeds 1.5–2.5 times. The greatest threat to planting is larvae that have reborn from eggs laid during the period of mass egg-laying. Thus, these materials are the basis for the temporal localization of the use of various methods that lead to egg death. The paper presents an original, ecologically oriented system of regulating the number of soil phytophagous complexes: western and eastern May, marble, June and hairy beetles in nurseries of Scots pine, which is based on the concept of a long-term program of ecosystem saturation with entomopathogens, 5 % of drugs/ml, Metarizin, 5 % SP titer 900 million/ml, compositions Metarizin, 5 % SP + Steinernema feltiae 1.0–1.2 million) until pest populations reach the threshold of extinction. Moreover, the use of chemical insecticides (Aktara, 25 WG, v. g., Antichrush Lux, h. p.) is provided only at the initial stage of the program – in the spring of the first year and only during the period of mass flight and egg-laying. For forest ecosystems, it is advisable to increase the biological part of the protection system to 60–80 %, compared to the known ratio of chemical and biological methods (60:40), as the latter was established for acrocyanoses, taking into account not only the ecological component but also acceptable levels yield. Nursery threat from soil phytophagous is carried out for large areas according to the original protocol of the classification «penalty system» on the basis of scoring risk factors, and for local areas using a statistical method based on spatial distributions of the Swedberg criterion of plant attacks (percentage of death) and «pressure» of larvae on seedlings (reduction of growth to standard). Based on the results of the assessment, a management decision is made on the application of means of population regulation.