Diversity Of Encyrtid Parasitoids From Three Ecosystems

Abstract

Encyrtid parasitoids play an important role in the biological control of many agricultural as well as horticultural pests. The present study determines and compares the faunal and temporal diversities of Encyrtidae in finger millet, rice and sugarcane ecosystems at the College of Agriculture, V C Farm, Mandya, Karnataka. The study was conducted at fortnightly intervals over a period of 12 months from March, 2016 to February, 2017 at the G and C-blocks of the farm. As a result, 2647 encyrtids were collected- 1019 specimens (20 genera) were from finger millet; 604 (22 genera) and 1024 (29 genera) were from rice and sugarcane ecosystems, respectively. The abundance, Shannon-Wiener index, Simpson index and richness (Margalef’s index) were computed and it was concluded that maximum diversity occurred in sugarcane and rice ecosystems (Hʹ=3.00) and the least was with the finger millet ecosystem (Hʹ=.2.78). Bray-Curtis cluster analysis and Metric Multidimensional scaling analysis were made to study the similarity and encyrtid diversity in different seasons.