Vol. 11, Special Issue 2 (2022)

Author(s):
Sundar Pal, Sushil Kumar Chaturvedi, David Chella Baskar, Pradeep Kumar, Amit Kumar Patel, Arvind Parmar and Vishal Sarsiya

Abstract:
In nature, Coccinella septumpunctata is a predator that deprives harmful insects of food and plays a significant role in crop protection; nevertheless, its end-parasites are also present in ecosystems, which are affecting its parasitic effect. Oomyzus scaposus and Alcaeorrhynchus grandis have been identified as pupal parasitoids and grub predators of Coccinella septumpunctata in Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University, Jhansi, and Uttar Pradesh, India. In nature, Oomyzus scaposus is a parasite on a predator, Coccinella septumpunctata, thus being placed in the hyper parasitoid group. Observations show that the range of dead pupae of the ladybird beetle was 7.41-85.0 percent during that time when the degree of beetle pupae was 0.3±0.1-6.9±2.7 pupae plant^-1 week^-1. Alcaeorrhynchus grandis caused 50 percent of the grub population and 100 percent of the pupae to die. As for beetle larvae and pupae, the ranges were 1.3±0.6 - 30.7±7.1 and 2.3±0.6 - 48.7±7.6, respectively, while for sting bugs, it ranged from 0.7±0.6 - 3.3±2.1adults annually. A high parasitism level has led to a contraction in predator communities, which has appeared to decline their natural biological control.