Abstract
Plans for an agro-ecological system for agricultural production must consider vegetal diversification in agricultural properties because, among other advantages, it can help the biological control of pests when it focuses on such an end. Predator ladybeetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) can be found in different environments; they play an important role in biological control. The aims of the present study were to feature ladybeetle populations through faunistic analysis and determine their fluctuations in an agro-ecological system comprising seven sub-systems subjected to different cultivation systems in Seropédica County, RJ. The experiment was conducted from December/2018 to December/2019 at Módulo de Cultivo Orgânico Intensivo de Hortaliças (MCOIH), which is located at Sistema Integrado de Produção Agroecológica (SIPA). In total, 1,231 adult ladybeetles were captured, distributed into 13 species, 3 genera and 2 tribes of Coccinellidae, which resulted in S (taxon richness) = 19, Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H’) = 0.65 (at 0 to 1 scale) and Margalef diversity index (α) = 2.53 (values lower than 2.0 represent low diversity sites). Equitability was low (E = 0.22), since one of the ladybeetle species has prevailed: Cycloneda sanguinea (most frequent, dominating and constant) in MCOIH, as well as in each of the sub-systems. However, the simplest sub-systems installed for vegetable production (monoculture gardens) were not favorable for ladybeetle diversity, whereas sub-systems installed for polyculture of leafy vegetables recorded the greatest taxa diversity of ladybeetles, including species that predate in aphids that attack vegetables [Coleomegilla maculata, Coleomegilla quadrifasciata, Cycloneda sanguinea, Eriopis connexa, Harmonia axyridis, Hippodamia convergens and Hyperaspis (Hyperaspis) festiva]. The sub-system comprising gliricidia was used to produce fertilization biomass and favored the predominance of C. sanguinea in comparison to the other ladybeetle species in MCOIH. Spring was the season mostly favoring the occurrence of C. sanguinea and H. convergens adults; which were dominant species in ladybeetle assemblage in MCOIH; however, C. sanguinea was constant and H. convergens was accessory.
Highlights
Crop management forms in agro-ecosystems, i.e., the adoption of monocultures or polycultures, influence the abundance and richness of natural enemies to agricultural pests
The experiment was conducted from December/2018 to December/2019 at Módulo de Cultivo Orgânico Intensivo de Hortaliças (MCOIH), which is located at Sistema Integrado de Produção Agroecológica (SIPA)
Faunistic analysis In total, 1,231 adult ladybeetles were captured in MCOIH, 1,064 adults belonged to 13 species, 141 of them were distributed into three genera and 44 adults were divided into two tribes (Table 1)
Summary
Crop management forms in agro-ecosystems, i.e., the adoption of monocultures or polycultures, influence the abundance and richness of natural enemies to agricultural pests. Diversified agricultural systems tend to increase these ecological indexes, mainly when agricultural landscape diversity is taken into account (Root 1973; Vandermeer and Perfecto 1995; Altieri and Nicholls 2018) Such favorable environment is observed when there is greater availability of microhabitats used as refuge, reproduction and feeding sites by natural enemies. Ladybeetles are distributed in different terrestrial environments; they are important biological agents to control phytophagous mites (Arachnida: Acari), insects belonging to sub-order Sternorrhyncha (Insecta: Hemiptera) such as aphids, mealybugs and whiteflies These insects can feed on eggs and neonate Lepidoptera and Coleoptera larvae found in crops, but some ladybeetle species have mycophagous habit (Hagen 1962; Giorgi et al 2009; Obrycki et al 2009; Hodek and Evans 2012)
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