Study of morphological characters of important predatory fauna found in kharif Agro-ecosystem from the region, Akola, Maharashtra, India

Abstract

Accurate identification of agricultural pests is key requirement for the successful integrated pest management (IPM) program. Based on the above investigations, it can be concluded that among predators, lady bird beetle, syrphid fly, stink bug, robber fly, dragonfly, damselfly, earwigs, tiger beetle, preying mantid, ear wigs and various species of spiders’ like Neoscona spp. Thomisus spp. and Oxyopes spp. were found active in various talukas of Akola districts in kharif season and playing an important role in natural pest management. They were also density dependant and their numbers rise as the prey numbers increases. This investigation may helpful to the farmers as well as researchers and students for awareness, identification and characterization studies of the different predatory fauna. This work emphasize the need for conservation of diversity of predatory insect fauna found in major kharif crop agro ecosystem for estimating the species diversity and easy identifying the predatory fauna at the farmer’s level.