Entomofauna diversity in sunflower crop in association with attractant plants

Abstract

The objective of the research was to determine the effect of the association of the sunflower crop with attractive crops on the diversity and abundance of the entomofauna at the Experimental Farm Querochaca, Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias, Universidad Tecncia de Ambato (UTA), Ecuador. Samplings of insects visiting sunflower were made at 8:30; 11:30 and 14:30 h during three months. The insects were separated by morphotypes and posteriorly identified to family or when possible to species level using taxonomic keys. Specimens belonging to Diptera and Hymenoptera were sent to the J.M Osorio-UCOB Entomological Museum (Venezuela) for identification. The different morphotypes were separated by their feeding habit as predators, phytophagous, parasitoids and pollinators. A total of 379, 1065 and 396 insects were collected when the sunflower seeded alone, in association with Vicia and Chinese cabbage, respectively. In general, the entomofauna composition was similar in the three cropping systems in which it was found that the highest number of families collected corresponded to insects of predatory habit (11), phytophagous (5), pollinators (4) and parasitoids (2) (p<0,001). Diptera showed greatest diversity of families (14), followed by Homoptera (3) and Hymenoptera (3), whereas only two families from Coleoptera and one from Hemiptera were collected. A positive correlation was observed between insect numbers and temperature in sunflower + Vicia (r = 0.9144, p <0.00), sunflower + Chinese cabbage (r = 0.9548, p <0.00) and sunflower alone (r = 0.9204, p <0.00). According using attractive plant species in association to sunflower promoted higher insect diversity, including pollinator and natural enemies species, which could be profited to increase crop productivity, however, more detailed studies are required to establish its impact.