DIVERSITY OF INSECT PESTS AND THEIR NATURAL ENEMIES IN HOT PEPPER (CAPSICUM ANNUM L.) ECOSYSTEM OF INDONESIA

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the diversity and structure of insect communities in hot pepper ecosystem of Indonesia. The study was carried out in Lembang, in 2020 using yellow sticky and fruit fly traps. The study showed 18 insect families belonging to the following orders: Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Thysanoptera and Lepidoptera. These families consisted of 23 species and 45,489 individuals. The Shannon-Wiener (H’) diversity index showed that the ecosystem had low to moderate diversity, which increased from planting to harvesting stages. The species evenness index (E) was low during the vegetative growth and increased during reproductive and harvesting stages. Simpson’s dominance index (D) decreased with increasing diversity, from medium to low dominance category.