Diversity of Coleopteran Fauna in kharif Pulses

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Date
2016
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MPUAT, Udaipur
Abstract
An investigation on “Diversity of coleopteran fauna in kharif pulses” were carried out at the Department of Entomology, Rajasthan college of Agriculture, MPUAT, Udaipur, during the kharif season 2015 with a view to record the species diversity of coleopteran fauna in kharif pulses viz., blackgram greengram and cowpea at three locations (College Instructional farm, Farmer’s field at Vallabhnagar village and another Farmer’s field at Badgaon village). In the experiment the influence of abiotic environmental factors on the coleopteran population was ascertained and a diagnostic key was developed for identification of members of family Curculionidae and Chrysomelidae up to subfamily level. The conducted survey during kharif 2015 resulted in the collection of members of 8 families (2 foliage feeding families: Curculionidae and Chrysomelidae, 3 families feeding flowers and pods: Scarabaeidae, Bruchidae and Meloidae and other coleopteran families: Coccinellidae, Staphylinidae and Anthicidae) of Coleoptera. A total of 15 genera were identified from the 8 families (Curculionids: Myllocerus and Cyrtozemia; chrysomelids: Aulacophora, Monolepta, Chaetocnema, Luperomorpha, Lema and Colasposoma; scarabaeids: Oxycetonia and Chiloloba; bruchids Callosobruchus; the meloid: Mylabris; coccinellids: Coccinella, Cheilomenus and Illeis; staphylinids: 3 unidentified genera and Anthicid: one unidentified genus). Members of the leaf feeding families and those of natural enemies started to appear in the crop field at all three locations from the 29 SMW and prevailed up to the harvest of crop (38 SMW); whereas, the flowers and pod feeding families started to infest the crop from 34 SMW up to crop harvest. Based on relative density the curculionids and chrysomelids were dominant in pulse crops. The location-wise and as per crop Shannon diversity indices ranged from1.72 to 1.54 and was the maximum for the fauna in greengram at the farmer’s field of Vallabhnagar (1.72) and lowest for fauna in blackgram at farmer’s field of Badgaon (1.54). The population of foliage feeding insects was negatively correlated with the major abiotic factors; whereas, the population of flower/ pod feeders and natural enemies of pestiferous insects evinced a significant positive correlation with major abiotic factors. Morphological characterization of 3 species of Myllocerus (Curculionidae), 7 species of the six chrysomelid genera: Aulacophora, Monolepta, Chaetocnema, Luperomorpha, Lema and Colasposoma (Chrysomelidae), Mylabris pustulata Thunberg (Meloidae) and 3 coccinellids: Coccinella septumpunctata Linnaeus, Cheilomenes sexmaculatus (Fabricius) and Illeis cincta (Fabricius) (Coccinellidae) was done and has been described with suitable photographs and line diagrams to depict the taxonomic characters.
Description
Diversity of Coleopteran Fauna in kharif Pulses
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Citation
Pinjara and Swaminathan, 2016
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