Faunistic diversity of insect and predatory spiders on tree mulberry in Chikkaballapura and Kolar districts of Karnataka

Abstract

A study on diversity of insect and predatory spider fauna on tree mulberry was undertaken in tree mulberry gardens of Chikkaballapura and Kolar districts, during July 2017 to January 2018. Totally 55 species of insect fauna belonging to 31 families, under six orders and 21 species of spiders belonging to nine families under order Araneae were associated with tree mulberry. Similarly, 27 species of insect fauna belonging to 17 families, under six orders and 14 species of spiders belonging to seven families under order Araneae were associated with bush mulberry. The Shannon-Weiner diversity indices (H) revealed that, order Lepidoptera (0.137) showed maximum diversity, followed by Araneae (0.131), Coleoptera (0.129), Hemiptera (0.111), Hymenoptera (0.068), Diptera (0.061) and Orthoptera (0.023); whereas in bush mulberry, the members of order Araneae registered greater diversity (0.115), followed by insects belonging to the Orders Coleoptera (0.083)> Lepidoptera (0.081)> Hemiptera (0.043)> Orthoptera (0.039) > Diptera (0.039), in the decreasing order of ‘H’ value.