Biodiversity of insects and mites in organic farming system of bottle gourd [Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standley]

Abstract

An inventory of 42 species of different insects and mites was made for the organic bottle gourd crop. A total of 42 species of insects and mites belonging to 35 families of the 12 orders viz. Hemiptera, Dermeptera, Mantodea, Odonata, Orthoptera, Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Neuroptera, Acarina and Araneae was observed on bottle gourd. Insects of the order Hemiptera were observed as the dominant group with 11 species and 10 families contributing to 27.5 per cent. Mite population was also observed in organic farming systems during the entire study period. A total of 5093 insects and mites from bottle gourd crop were observed during the summer 2020 and 2021. Order Hemiptera (36.66%) and Coleoptera (32.32%) were relatively more abundant on the organic farm compared to other orders. From Hemiptera, Aphis gossypii Glover was found most abundant with 9.28 per cent abundance followed by Nesidiocoris spp. with 10.72 per cent abundance and from order Coleoptera, Aulacophora foveicollis Lucas was the most abundant with 17.00 per cent abundance and found as very common species. Shannon’s diversity index, species richness and species evenness of insect and mites of organic bottle gourd crops were recorded as 2.94, 10.57 and 0.80, respectively.