Effects of different pest managements on biodiversity of insects in citrus orchards of Babolsar and Hadishahr districts in Iran

Abstract

In this research, insect populations in citrus orchards of Hadishahr, Babolsar, Mazandaran Province, Iran, under different types of pest management including conventional orchard (CO), low input orchard (LIO) and free pesticides protocol orchard (FPPO) in winter and spring seasons during December 22, 2017 to June 21, 2018 were evaluated by installation of pitfall traps, sticky yellow cards and branch and leaf samples. The results on foliage samples in winter showed that the highest Shanon-Weiner index, Brilloun index, species richness and species frequency was obtained for LIO. In spring, the highest values of diversity indices, species richness and frequency was also calculated for LIO. The highest eveness indices was obtained for CO in winter and spring. Mean comparisons on data collected by sticky yellow cards showed that in winter and spring, the highest values of diversity indices, species richness and frequency was estimated for LIO, while in winter, the values of eveness indices for CO was significantly more than those for FPPO and LIO, and in spring, the highest values of eveness indices belonged to FPPO. Based on the results related to pitfall traps, the highest values of diversity indices, species richness and frequency was obtained for LIO, while the values of eveness indices calculated for CO was higher than those for FPPO and LIO.

Keywords

• citrus
• pest management
• diversity index
• eveness index
• species richness