SURVEY OF LEAFHOPPERS ON MEDICINAL an‎d AROMATIC PLANTS IN EGYPT (HEMIPTERA: AUCHENORRHYNCHA: CICADELLIDAE)

Medicinal and Aromatic plants (MAPs) play a valuable and important role in economic, social, cultural and ecological aspects of local communities all over the world . In one form or another, they benefit virtually everyone on the earth through nutrition, toiletry, bodily care, incense and ritual healing important tool for treating illness in most cultures (Marshall, 2011). Medicinal and aromatic plants are infested with several insect pests including leafhoppers. They are herbivorous insects and many species are economically important pests of agricultural crops in and worldwide (Day and Fletcher, 1994). The family Cicadellidae is a globally-distributed group of sapfeeding insects that contains 20000 described species (Dietrich 2013).They feed by sucking plant sap from the xylem, phloem or mesophyll cells ( Knight 1983) and cause serious damage either directly through feeding or indirectly by transmitting plant pathogens including viruses and phytoplasmas (Weintraub and Beanland, 2006). Nielson (1979) listed 151 species and subspecies as vectors of plant pathogens such as plant viruses, phytoplasmas, spiroplasmas and bacteria.