A comparative evaluation of different traps for insect collections in cotton at PJTSAU, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad

Abstract

The insect diversity and the types of insect species infesting major crops in Rajendranagar is lacking. Since the majority of insect species are sturdy, proper sampling necessitates the use of appropriate strategies to capture specific insects. To address this, a comparative study was conducted from September 2021 to February 2022 at the college farm, Agricultural Research Institute (ARI), and student farm of Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU), Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, to investigate insect species diversity on cotton using Sweep net, Light trap and Sticky trap methods. Results showed that, in all three locations, Light trap captured higher numbers of insects with counts of 4225, 4149, 3630 predominantly from the order Hemiptera, at college farm, ARI and student farm respectively. Sweep net recorded 2114, 2407 and 2386 insects and Sticky traps collected 2433, 2228 and 1487 insects in college farm, ARI and student farm respectively which are also dominated by order Hemiptera. Shannon index recorded highest for light trap (H = 1.745, 1.803 and 1.785) in college farm, ARI and student farm respectively. From the study it was concluded that, light trap shown to be the most effective and complementary to insect orders but it is affected by influence of weather conditions. To effectively collect insects, it is recommended to employ different trapping methods in crop ecosystem.