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T. VASISTA*, M. S. V. CHALAM, K. V. HARI PRASAD and G . MOHAN NAIDU Department of Entomology, S. V. Agricultural College, Tirupati- 517 502, Chittoor Dt., A.P., India
A survey was conducted in ten major pulse and groundnut growing mandals of Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. From each mandal five villages were selected for collecting Coccinellids, and the survey to know the species composition was conducted from August to January months. A total of twelve Coccinellid species were recoreded from both pulse and groundnut crop ecosystems. Of these ten species of Coccinellids viz., Cheliomenes sexmaculata (Fabricius), Coccinella transversalis Fabricius, Coccinella septumpunctata Linnaeus, Illeis cincta (Fabricius), Harmonia octomaculata (Fabricius), Brumoides suturalis (Fabricius), Micraspis discolor (Fabricius), Scymnus nubulis Mulsant Jauravia dorsalis (Weise) and Pseudospidimerus trinotatus Thunberg were reported from pulse crop ecosystems and Nine species of Coccinellids viz., Cheilomenes sexmaculata, Coccinella transversalis, Illeis cincta, Harmonis octomaculata, Brumoides suturalis, Micraspis discolor, Scymnus nubulis, Chilocorus nigritus (Fabricius), Anegleis cardoni (Weise) were reported from groundnut crop ecosystems.
Predaceous coccinellids, pulses, groundnut, survey
Coccinellids belong to family Coccinellidae of order Coleoptera and are commonly called as ladybird beetles. These are oval to hemispherical in shape with clavate antennae, securiform maxillary palpi, pseudotrimerous tarsi and are often brightly coloured with red, orange (or) yellow shades. Coccinellids belong to family Coccinellidae, superfamily Cucujoidea, suborder Polyphaga and order Coleoptera comprising about 490 genera and more than 6000 species worldwide (Slipnski,2007).
Ladybird beetles have been known worldwide as predators on number of insects and were distributed in many Asiatic countries including India (Singh and Brar, 2004). Coccinellids are of high economic importance due to their predatory activity against soft bodied insects like aphids, leafhoppers, psyllids, whiteflies, scale insects and mealy bugs. They also prey upon small larvae, insect eggs and phytophagous mites which are injurious to agricultural and forest plantations. The predaceous Coccinellids have been successfully utilized in various bicontrol programs with spectacular success rates. Some of the examples includes Radolia cardinalis Mulsant against Iceria purchasi Maskell, Cryptolaemus montruzeri Mulsant against Maconellisoccus hirusutus Green and Planococcus citri Risso etc. Less famous but just as important are the naturally occurring Coccinellids, for without these species in our crop ecosystems pest problems would have been far more intense. Composition of predatory Coccinellids varies widely among various crop ecosystems and so as their predatory potential on various hosts. Many workers recognized six subfamilies within the family Coccinellidae viz., Chilocorinae, Coccinellinae, Coccidulinae, Scymninae, Sticholotidinae and Epilachininae. Of these except subfamily Epilachninae all are predaceous. Survey is useful to determine the existence of any species on a given habitat. (Afshin et al., 2013). Rani et al. (2013), conducted survey during rabi and summer seasons and reported that Cheilomenes sexmaculata was the predominant species in pulses ecosystem form Khamam district of Andhra Pradesh. Rekha et al. (2009) conducted survey on Coccinellid beetles in Madurai district of Tamilnadu and reported that Coccinella transversalis (Fabricius), Menochilus sexmaculatus (Fabricius) and Brumoides suturalis (Mulsant) were found in cereals, pulses and vegetable crop ecosystems.
Chanmamla (2009) conducted survey in and around Tirupathi and collected Coccinellid beetles from maize, field bean, cucumber, groundnut, brinjal, horse gram and sesamum fields and reported that Coccinella transver-salis and Cheilomenes sexmaculata were the most abun-dant species. Rani et al. (2017) conducted survey in Guntur district and reported six Coccinellid species viz.,Cheilomenes sexmaculata (Fabricius), Coccinella transversalis (Fabricius), Harmonia octomaculata (Fab-ricius), Micraspis discolor (Fabricius), Scymnus coccivora (Ayyar) and Brumoides suturalis (Fabricius).
A survey was conducted to collect Coccinellid beetles from ten mandals viz., Narayanavanam, Nagiri, Nindra, Nagalapuram, Pichatur, Kumara Venkata Bhupalapuram, Vadalamalapeta, Vijayapuram, Yerpedu, Ramachandrapuram of Chittoor district in Rayalseema region. From each mandal five villages will be selected for collection of Coccinellids as well as to study the spe-cies composition of Coccinellids. The ladybird beetles were collected by sweep net method from different habi-tats like greengram, blackgram, redgram, cowpea and groundnut crop ecosystems. The crop wise collected Coccinellid specimens were preserved in glass vials. These species were described based on morphological character and identifications were conducted at Depart-ment of Entomology, S. V. Agricultural College, Tirupathi.
A survey was conducted to collect Coccinellid beetles from ten mandals viz., Narayanavanam, Nagiri, Nindra, Nagalapuram, Pichatur, Kumara Venkata Bhupalapuram, Vadalamalapeta, Vijayapuram, Yerpedu, Ramachandrapuram of Chittoor district in Rayalseema region. From each mandal five villages will be selected for collection of Coccinellids as well as to study the spe-cies composition of Coccinellids. The ladybird beetles were collected by sweep net method from different habi-tats like greengram, blackgram, redgram, cowpea and groundnut crop ecosystems. The crop wise collected Coccinellid specimens were preserved in glass vials. These species were described based on morphological character and identifications were conducted at Depart-ment of Entomology, S. V. Agricultural College, Tirupathi.
Totally three thousand eight hundred and ninety three (3893) Coccinellids were collected from pulses and groundnut crop ecosystems. Of these 2234 beetles were collected from pulse crop ecosystem and one thousand six hundred and fifty nine (1659) beetles were collected from groundnut crop ecosystem. A total of twelve Coccinellid species were recoreded from both pulse and groundnut crop ecosystems. These twelve species were viz., Brumoides suturalis (Fabricius), Chilocorus nigritus (Fabricius), Coccinella septempunctata Linnaeus, Coccinella transversalis Fabricius, Harmo-nia octomaculata (Fabricius), Illeis cincta (Fabricius), Micraspis discolor (Fabricius), Cheilomenes sexmaculata (Fabricius), Anegleis cardoni (Weise), Pseudaspidimerus trinotatus (Thunberg), Scymnus (Scymnus) nubilus Mulsant and Jauravia dorsalis (Weise) respectively. Among these ten species of –
Coccinellids viz., M. sexmaculata, C. transversalis, C. septumpunctata, I. cincta, H. octomaculata, B. suturalis, M. discolor, S. nubulis, J. dorsalis and P. trinotatus (Table 1) were collected from various pulse crop ecosystems viz., redgram, greengram, blackgram and cowpea (predominant pulses in Chittoor of Rayalseema region). Among the predatory Coccinellid species recorded M. sexmaculata (41.00% of total Coccinellids) ranked first in abundance followed by C. transversalis (28.55 % of total Coccinellids), while H. octomaculata ranked last in abundance (0.49% of total Coccinellids). The observa-tions are presented in pie chart (Figure 1).
Nine species of Coccinellids viz., Cheilomenes sexmaculata, Coccinella transversalis, Coccinella septumpunctata, Illeis cincta, Harmonis octomaculata, Brumoides suturalis, Micraspis discolor, Scymnus nubulis, Chilocorus nigritus were reported from ground-nut crop ecosystem, among these nine species of Coccinellids Chielomenes sexmaculata Fabricius (45.75% of the total Coccinellids) and Coccinella trans-versalis (Fabricius) (27.42% of the total Coccinellids) were the two most abundant species and the least abun-dant species was Aneglies cardoni (Weise) (0.30% of the total Coccinellids). The two most abundant species from both pulse and groundnut crop ecosystems were found to be C. sexmaculata and C. transversalis (Table 2). The observations were presented in pie chart (Figure
2).
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Total 12 species of Coccinellids has been reported from pulse and groundnut crop ecosystems. Among these ten species were reported from pulse ecosystem and nine species were reported from groundnut crop ecosystem. Cheolimenes sexmaculata Fabricius and Coccinella transversalis (Fabricius) were the most abundant spe-cies in and around Tirupati in both pulse and groundnut crop ecosystems. Illeis cincta (Fabricius) (14.4% of the collected Coccinellids) is third most abundant Coccinellid in pulse crop ecosystem. Micraspis discolor (Fabricius) (12.59% of the collected Coccinellids) is the third most abundant species in groundnut crop ecosystem. Puttarudriah and Channabasavanna (1953, 1955, 1956) has reported five species of Coccinellids on groundnut crop viz., Coccinella septempunctata Linnaeus, Coccinella transversalis Fabricius, Harmonia octomaculata (Fabricius), Micraspis discolor (Fabricius) and Cheilomenes sexmaculata (Fabricius). Chanmamla (2009) reported five species viz., Coccinella septempunctata Linnaeus, Coccinella transversalis Fabricius, Harmonia octomaculata (Fabricius), Micraspis discolor (Fabricius) and Cheilomenes sexmaculata (Fabricius) from groundnut crop ecosystem feeding on aphids, Aphis craccivora and leafhoppers, Empoasca (Empoasca) motti Pruthi. Among these spe-cies, Coccinella transversalis Fabricius is abundant re-cording 52% of population followed by Cheilomenes sexmaculata (Fabricius) (29%). Rekha et. al. (2009) has reported three species of Coccinellids viz., Coccinella transversalis, Menochilus sexmaculatus and Brumoides suturalis from cereals, pulses and vegetable crop eco-systems. Rani et. al. (2013) has reported that Cheilomenes sexmaculata as predominant Coccinellid species in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh. Rani et. al. (2017) has reported six species of Coccinellids viz., Cheilomenes sexmaculata, Coccinella transversalis, Harmonia octomaculata, Micraspis discolor, Scymnus coccivora and Brumoides suturalis from pulse crop ecosystems of Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. She also reported that Cheilomenes sexmaculata was the predominant Coccinellid species in Guntur district. In the present stud-ies also two Coccinellids viz., Cheilomenes sexmaculata and Coccinella transversalis were found to be the most abundant Coccineliids and the results are in close agree-ment to the works of Chanmamla (2009), Rani et. al. (2017) and Rekha et. al. (2009).
The present study revealed that C. sexmaculata and C. transversalis were the most abundant Coccinellids in pulse and groundnut ecosystems of Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. Harmonia octomaculata and Aneglies cardoni were the least abundant Coccinellid species on pulses and groundnut crop ecosystems respectively.