Fecundity of The Pine Processionary, Thaumetopoea Pityocampa (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775) In The Case Of Reforestation In Moudjbara (Djelfa - Algeria)

A study of the fecundity of female populations of the pine processionary in the Moudjbara reforestation indicates that there are cyclical variations in the reproduction of this species. Descriptive analysis of pine processionary oviposition lengths showed greater significance for oviposition deposited on needles than for oviposition deposited on twigs. A very highly significant difference was noted between the lengths of the egg-laying supports from the Moudjbara reforestation (p=0.0001). The 195 pine processionary oviposition sites revealed a total of 37,272 eggs, with an average of 191 eggs per oviposition site. Analysis of the variance between the various categories of eggs showed a highly significant probability (p=0.0001). Three parasitoids were identified that emerged from oviposits collected at the Moudjbara reforestation site, with rates varying from year to year. T. embryophagum was encountered only sporadically in 2018, 2019 and 2021, with respective percentages not exceeding 2%. For the four pine processionary caterpillar populations studied, B. servadeii appeared to be more abundant than O. pityocampae. The number of B. servadeii adults observed reached 83.91% in 2020. Parasitoid activity was greater on eggs located at the ends of the clutch. It also appears that O. pityocampae mainly parasitizes the upper part of the egg, whereas B. servadeii shows a preference for the lower part

Contribution to the Study of The Pedofauna In Southern Algeria (Djelfa Forest, Algeria)

This study compares the soil fauna populations of two Aleppo pine sites in the semi-arid bioclimatic zone. One is located at Moudjbara, and the other at Senalba Chergui in the steppe of the Wilaya of Djelfa. Analysis of the soil sample inventories revealed a total of 479 specimens belonging to 9 classes, 16 orders, 38 families and 41 species. The Moudjbara fauna remains the best represented in terms of abundance, with a rate of 53% of the total number, as well as in terms of richness for all taxa combined, 23 families and 26 species compared with 15 for each of the above-mentioned ranks. On the basis of the data collected, it is clear that the Moudjbara forest seems to offer ecological conditions that are more conducive to the establishment of a more diversified community of soil fauna than the Sénalba Chergui forest. The Sénalba Chergui forest is the least rich in species and the least abundant in terms of numbers of individuals. The equitability values for the two biotopes surveyed tend to approach the value of 1, which implies that all the species are more or less equally distributed between them