Occurrence of lac insects and their host plants in Tamil Nadu and Kerala Mohanasundaram A.*, Sharma K. K., Lohot V. D., Thamilarasi K., Ghosh J., Ramani R., Shamim Gulsaz, Choudhury Neelanjana, Eqbal Sajiya Lac Production Division, ICAR-Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums, Ranchi, 834010, Jharkhand *Corresponding author Email: mohaniinrg@gmail.com
Online published on 5 February, 2019. Abstract Occurrence of natural populations of lac insects (Hemiptera: Tachardiidae) were observed on Amherstia nobilis at Thrissur of Kerala; on Albizia saman at Madurai, Salem, Vellore and Thiruvallur of Tamil Nadu and on Ficus religiosa at Erode and Vellore of Tamil Nadu. Dead lac insects were observed on A. saman, at Thenkasi and Theni in Tamil Nadu. Albizia saman, Albizia lebbek, Ficus religiosa, Ficus bengalensis and Ziziphus mauritiana were the most common lac host plants found in surveyed areas, but lac insect populations were observed only at some locations. The survey led to identification of two new species of Kerria. The molecular analysis based on cox1 sequence classified the collected lac insects from Tamil Nadu and Kerala under rangeeni strain. Newly collected lac insect lines from Tamil Nadu and Kerala clustered with K. lacca in phylogenetic tree. Hence, there is a need for a detailed survey in unexplored parts. The study also revealed that Madurai and Thrissur accessions did not perform well in Jharkhand. Agroecological region wise survey and maintenance is suggested for conserving lac associated faunal and floral diversity. Top Keywords Kerria, lac insect, lac hosts, Amherstia nobilis, Albizia saman, Ficus religiosa, cox1, phylogenetics. Top |