22 Eyl 2025 Pazartesi
Tri-trophic associations of aphidophagous Coccinella species (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) in different states and union territories of India
Abstract : The paper deals with the tri-trophic associations of 8 species of Coccinella Linnaeus (Coccinellidae: Coleoptera): Coccinella luteopicta (Mulsant), Coccinella magnopunctata Rybakow, Coccinella saucerottei Mulsant, Coccinella septempunctata Linnaeus, Coccinella transversalis Fabricius, Coccinella transversoguttata Faldermann, Coccinella undecimpunctata Linnaeus and Coccinella undecimpunctata aegyptiaca Reiche, recorded in India. The most polyphagous of them, Coccinella septempunctata L., feeds on 103 species of aphids infesting 186 species of plants, followed by Coccinella transversalis Fabricius which feeds on 49 species of aphids infesting 147 species of plants and Coccinella undecimpunctata Linnaeus that feeds on 17 species of aphids infesting 29 species of plants and other species prey on 1-5 species of aphids. All these species are recorded on 110 species of aphids infesting 241 species of food plants with 582 tri-trophic associations in 29 states/union territories of India. The most preferred prey of Coccinella species are Aphis craccivora Koch, Aphis gossypii Glover, Brevicoryne brassicae (Linnaeus), Eriosoma lanigerum (Hausmann), Lipaphis erysimi (Kaltenbach), Lipaphis pseudobrassicae (Davis), Myzus persicae (Sulzer) and Sitobion rosaeiformis (Das) on several agricultural crops such as cereals, vegetables, oil seeds, pulses, fruits etc. Most of the tri-trophic associations (triplets) of Coccinella spp. are reported in Uttar Pradesh (111 triplets) followed by Manipur (103 triplets), West Bengal (93 triplets), Jammu & Kashmir (77 triplets), Bihar (71 triplets), Uttarakhand (64 triplets), Kerala (63 triplets), Himachal Pradesh (58 triplets) and in other states less than 50 triplets.