Influence of weather parameters on seasonal abundance of arthropods in a floricultural ecosystem

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out to explore the weather correlation with the abundance of arthropods in floricultural ecosystem viz., rose, and cock’s comb and jasmine fields. The present study was conducted at Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and Kasthurinay kumpalayam in Coimbatore district during 2011-2012. Correlation analysis showed that the arthropod population was positively correlated with relative humidity (0.4987) and evening sunshine hours (0.1358), but negative correlation was observed in maximum temperature (-0.5012) and rainfall (-0.2013). Among the spiders, order Araneae had a negative correlation with maximum temperature (-0.4232) and positively correlated with sunshine hours (0.4422) but this was negatively correlated with rainfall (-0.4588). In case of insects, a positive correlation with high humidity (0.5247) and sunshine hours (0.1026), but a significant negative correlation with rainfall (-0.1657) and maximum temperature (-0.3871) was observed. The insects belonging to the orders Coleoptera, Hemiptera and Hymenopetra were also subjected to correlation analysis with the weather parameters.