Relative abundance and species composition of predatory coccinellids fauna in different seasons of Brinjal crop

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted to study the arthropod biodiversity in the brinjal to document the total predatory fauna of coccinellids occurring in the brinjal crop at sprayed and unsprayed areas. Total ten species of coccinellids were recorded in study areas of brinjal ecosystem among them, the sub-family wise species composition was as follows: Coccinellidae: Coccinellinae (6 species), Chilocorinae (1 species) and Scymninae (3 species). Among the 10 species, seven species were more abundant viz., Cheilomenes sexmaculata, Coccinella septempunctata, Coccinella transversalis, Propylea sp., Brumoides suturalis, Scymnus latemaculatus, Pseudaspidimerus trinotatus recorded in Attur Farm (Unsprayed area) and in sprayed area, i.e., Chikkaballapur and Doddaballapur, five dominant species were recorded viz., Cheilomenes sexmaculata, Coccinella septempunctata, Coccinella transversalis, Propylea sp. and Brumoides suturalis. By observing the faunal composition of coccinellids, highest number of species was observed at unsprayed area compared with sprayed area. At Bengaluru (Attur Farm) unsprayed area, the relative abundance of Cheilomenes sexmaculata was highest 15.48 per cent in all the seasons and lowest abundance was recorded for Scymnus latemaculatus (9.91%), Pseudaspidimerus trinotatus (10.08%) and Propylea sp. (12.50%) during Kharif, Rabi and summer seasons, respectively. A similar trend was observed for sprayed areas, viz., Chikkaballapur and Doddaballapur, where Cheilomenes sexmaculata was recorded dominant species comprising of 21.43, 20.80 and 21.05 per cent of all species composition in different seasons.