1Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Entomology, PGP College of Agricultural Sciences, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Namakkal-637 207, Tamil Nadu, India
2Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Entomology, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru College of Agriculture and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Karaikal, U.T.of Puducherry- 609 603, India
3Research Fellow, Department of Agricultural Entomology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-3, Tamil Nadu, India
*Email: entomonardha@yahoo.com
Online published on 31 December, 2014.
Field surveys were carried out to inventorize the insect fauna in okra during kharif, 2012 and rabi, 2012–13. A total of 112 insect species under 106 genera, 56 families and 10 orders were observed in the okra ecosystem. The order lepidoptera was the most diversed (26 species) followed by coleoptera (24 species), hymenoptera (24 species), hemiptera (12 species), odonata (10 species), orthoptera (9 species), diptera (3 species), dictyoptera (2 species), neuroptera and thysanoptera (1 species in each). The order hymenoptera consists of maximum 13 families followed by hemiptera (11 families), lepidoptera (10 families), coleoptera (8 families), orthoptera (5 families), diptera (3 families), dictyoptera and odonata (2 families in each), neuroptera and thysanoptera (1 family in each). The diversity of the predators was maximum and comprised of 38 species followed by tourists (31 species), herbivores (28 species), parasitoids (7 species), pollinators (4 species), detrivores and omnivores (2 species in each).
Insect, Biodiversity, Okra, Inventory, Ecosystem
