Arthropod Richness and Abundance in Brinjal Crop Ecosystems

In the study on arthropod biodiversity in brinjal with the variety Navakiran, 12 numbers of different insect pests under 6 orders and 12 families were recorded. These included Phyllotreta sp., epilachna beetle, Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata Fab. cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover, cotton whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Genn.), cotton jassid, Amrasca biguttula biguttula Ishida, hooded hopper, Oxyrachis terandus Fab., thrips, Thrips tabaci (Linderman), brinjal shoot and fruit borer, Leucinodes orbonalis Guen, short horned grasshopper, Hieroglyphus banian Fab., long horned grass hopper (unidentified), red pumpkin beetle, Aulachophora foviecollis (Lucas) and dipteran fruit fly (unidentified). Besides, six different natural enemies namely, one species of lynx spider (unidentified), one species of Syrphid fly (unidentified), one species of ant (Solenopsis sp.) and three species of ladybird beetles (Cheilomenes sexmaculatus Fab., Coccinella transvarsalis Fab. and Brumoides sp.) were recorded from the field. The cotton aphid showed its peak during 8th SW (Standard Week) while in case of jassid, whitefly and leaf hopper it was during 9th SW. Epilachna beetle had two peaks- during 8th and 18th SW. Brinjal shoot and fruit borer attained peak during 8th SW.