Spatial and time disposition of Heteropsylla cubana (Crawford) in a Leucaena leucocephala (LAM) de Wit pasture area

摘要

In recent years, interest to study shrub and tree legumes has increased, maybe because these are one of the few plants that could offer high quality animal forage during the whole year, besides other benefits as multipurpose plants that are essentialto design real sustainable animal production systems (Gonzalez, 1996). At the beginning, leucaena plants were notable for being free of pests, probably due to the insecticide properties of the mimosine present in young leaves in active growing (Shelton 1996). The apparition of this legume psyllid (Heteropsylla cubana) created incertitude in its use as animal feeding source. However, it has been found that, in our conditions, there is an active permanence of bio-regulators that prevent this psyllid causes economic harms to leucaena crops, at least, with populations present in the activity (Valenciaga et al 1999).