Diversity of Ladybird Beetle Communities (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) under different Cucurbit Farming practices in Morogoro, Tanzania

Abstract

The farmers' friends, ladybird beetles, serve as predators to keep the plant-feeding insects from reaching damaging population levels and could be helpful in pest management. Farming strategies that retain biodiversity could be a viable option for pest management in agricultural systems. The current study examines the effects of various management practices on ladybird beetle diversity in cucurbit crops in both conventional and agroecological contexts. Trapping and netting were used to collect data on the diversity of these ladybird beetles in 2021. Collected data were analyzed using R software to determine both alpha and beta diversity. In the plateau and mountainous zones, 222 predatory ladybird beetles were collected, with nine genera and 12 species classified. Cheilomenes lunata (28.82 %) was the most prevalent of the nine (9) genera in terms of the total number of individuals, followed by Cheilomenes sulphurea (20.72 %) and Hippodamia variegata (15.90 %). The plateau zone collected 64.86 % of the total, while the mountainous zone comprised 35.14%. These findings are important in the decision-making and effective biological control and management of cucurbit crop pests. This study will help to gain insights into ecological balance and pest management.