Influence of Weather Parameters on Insect Abundance in Agroecosystem and Agroforest Ecosystem of Narsapur, Medak District, Telangana, India

Agricultural crops support various insects, including pests, natural enemies and pollinators. Insect pests cause significant losses in agricultural production. The diversity and abundance of insects vary according to both abiotic and biotic factors, as well as the growth stage of the rice plant (Sulaiman et al., 2013). So, proper documentation of insect population dynamics is very crucial for managing practices. Seasonal conditions are considered to be the major factors in determining spatial and temporal distribution of organisms. Seasonal variation in weather variables, such as rainfall and temperature maximum and minimum might be the most important causes of dramatic changes in insect abundance. So, different Meteorological parameters viz., Maximum temperature, Minimum temperature, Maximum relative humidity, Minimum relative humidity and Rainfall effect was studied on the abundance of the insect individuals in the rice monocrop field and rice boarderd with teak ecosystem. Insect monitoring was carried out using various sampling methods viz., pitfall trap, pheromone traps, sticky traps. Correlation was performed to see the significant effect on population of insects. Study revealed Rainfall showed significant effect on the abundance of insect individuals from the order Odonata, Orthoptera, Mantodea, Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera in the agroforest ecosystem while in the agroecosystem Minimum RH showed positive correlation on the individuals from Odonata and Araneae with r values 0.614 and 0.592 respectively. Influence of weather parameters had significant effect on insect population. Also yield comparison was attempted to see any variation in the yield of rice crop between the ecosystems.