Abstract

STUDY ON THE BIO-DIVERSITY OF HYPER-PARASITISM IN MUSTARD CROP IN THE SELECTED REGION

Dr. Chanchal Shrivastava*, Dr. Shubhra Shukla, Insha Hasan, Umama Ansari

ABSTRACT

The study of hyper-parasitism in ladybird beetles and hoverflies on two parasitoid species, Oumyzus scaposus (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) and Dinocampus coccinella (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) was discovered which revealed that the pupae of coccinellids act as parasites on larvae and adult animals and also affect the subsequent life cycle of the organism. The pupae of the syrphid, however, included another species, Diplazon orientalis (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae). Nevertheless, the infestation of O. scaposus and D. coccinella was found to be around (0.11%- 6.33%) and maximum (0.49%-6.23%) in different species of ladybird beetles (C. septempunctata, C. transversalis and M. sexmaculatus), with the species C. septempunctata having the highest infestation as it was found to be most abundant in rapeseed-mustard crop/fields. In the pupae of I. scutellaris, Diplazon orientalis invasion ranged from (0.87-24.67%). It's interesting to note that every parasite species continued to be active from February to March, decreasing the number of helpful predators (Coccinellids and Syrphid), and increasing the population of dangerous aphids on rapeseed-mustard.

Keywords: Aphids, Diplazon orientalis, Syrphid and Mustard.