Diversity of chalcidids (Hymenoptera: Chalcididae) from different agro-climatic zones of Chhattisgarh, India

Abstract

The present study was conducted from July 2019 to February 2020 to evaluate the diversity of chalcidoids in different natural and manmade agroecosystems from three agro-climatic zones (Chhattisgarh Plains, Bastar Plateau and Northern Hills) in the state Chhattisgarh, India. The survey resulted in the collection of 386 specimens belonging to eight families Chalcididae-256 specimens (66.32%), Encyrtidae-13 (3.37%), Eulophidae-77 (19.94%), Eurytomidae-06 (1.56%), Mymaridae-02 (0.52%), Ormyridae-01 (0.26%), Pteromalidae-16 (4.14%), and Torymidae-15 (3.89%), respectively from 17 collection sites. The highest diversity of chalcidoids was observed in the natural vegetation of Chhattisgarh Plains with Chalcididae as the most predominant family. Altogether, five predominant genera were collected using sweep net and yellow pan traps and were identified as Antrocephalus Kirby - 48 specimens (18.75%), Brachymeria Westwood - 71 (27.73%), Dirhinus Dalman -78 (30.47%), Epitranus Walker - 02 (0.78%), and Hockeria Walker - 57 (22.27%). The Chalcididae genera collected from different natural vegetation in descending order of their dominance were: Brachymeria - 53 specimens (32.31%) > Dirhinus - 42 (25.61%) > Antrocephalus - 34 (20.73%) > Hockeria - 33 (20.13%) > Epitranus -02 (1.22%). However in the manmade agroecosystems, Dirhinus was the most dominant genus and the descending order of dominance of genera observed were: Dirhinus - 36 specimens (39.13%) > Hockeria - 24 (26.09%) > Brachymeria - 18 (19.57%) > Antrocephalus - 14 (15.21%) with absence of the genus Epitranus . Comparing all the survey sites, Achanakmar Tiger Reserve, Mungeli was found most abundant in chalcid diversity under natural ecosystem and College of Agriculture, Raipur under agroecosystem with maximum diversity in vegetable fields of spine gourd, bottle gourd and sponge gourd altogether.