Insects associated with milkweed-Calotropis Procera (Ait.) growing in and around Chalisgaon, North Maharashtra Region, India

The insect fauna of milkweed, Calotropis procera (Ait.) growing in and around Chalisgaon was studied, during July, 2018 to September 2020. Sixty two insect species belonging to 9 orders, 40 families and 54 genera were associated with milkweed. The insects were consistently associated with C. procera either directly for feeding or indirectly by using the plant as habitat. The insect fauna were divided into five ecological groups i.e. Phytophagous, floral visitors, predators, parasitoid and scavengers. Around 46.8% insect species were defoliators and plant suckers, 17.74% species were floral visitors. 14.5% predators and 6% were predators. Thus the plant was associated with large numberofinsectpest.