On a collection of braconidae from three rice growing zones of Tamil Nadu Daniel J. Alfred1,*, Ramaraju K.2, Ranjith A. P.3 1Department of Agricultural Entomology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, 641003 2Directorate of Research, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, 641003 3Department of Zoology, University of Calicut, Malappuram, 673635 *Corresponding author Email: danieljalfred@gmail.com
Online published on 30 April, 2019. Abstract Surveys were conducted to explore the braconid fauna in rice ecosystems of Tamil Nadu during 2015–16 in three different rice growing zones viz., western zone, Cauvery delta zone and high rainfall zone. A total of 574 braconids with 18 species under 8 subfamilies were collected. Alpha and beta diversity were computed for the three zones. The diversity indices (Simpson's index, Shannon-Wiener index, Pielou's index) revealed that high rainfall zone is the most diverse zone, with Cauvery delta zone being the least diverse. Macrocentrus philippinensis was the dominant braconid with a relative abundance of 19.3%. On comparing the species similarities using the Jaccard's index in three zones taken in pairs, it was observed that 53% similarity existed between western and Cauvery delta zones, it was 44% between the high rainfall and Cauvery delta zones, and 50% as regards the high rainfall and western zones. Top Keywords Diversity, indices, parasitoids, Braconidae, rice ecosystem, Jaccard's index, similarity. Top |