7th International Science, Social Sciences, Engineering and Energy Conference
24-26 November, 2015, Wangchan Riverview Hotel, Phitsanulok, Thailand
I-SEEC 2015
http//iseec2015.psru.ac.th
Predacious ladybird beetles (Coeloptera: Coccinellidae)
inhabiting vegetable crop at Bung Phra organic farming,
Phitsanulok province, Thailand
Sudarut Homjun, Wisoot Chan-it, Pisit Poolprasert*
Biology Program, Faculty of Science and Technology, Pibulsongkram Rajabhat University, Phitsanulok, Thailand
*Coressponding author, e-mail: poolprasert_p@psru.ac.th
Abstract
Ladybird beetles, (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) are known worldwide. They are of great economic
importance as predators both in their larval and adult stages on various important crop pests i.e. aphids,
coccids and other soft bodied insects. Despite the coccinellid species is rich in Thailand, its diversity does
not cover a full geographic realm of likely habitat in the country; therefore, species diversity of
predacious coccinellid beetles was surveyed on vegetable crops in organic farming at Bung Phra
community, Phitsanulok province between June to August 2015 by using hand collecting. A total of 53
individual of coccinellids were collected. Four different species belonging to subfamily Coccinellinae
were collected and morphological identified as: Harmonia octomaculata (Fabricius, 1781); Coccinella
transversalis Fabricius, 1871; Menochilus sexmaculatus (Fabricius, 1781) and Micraspis discolour
(Fabricius, 1798). Herein, M. discolor obtained from the vegetable fields showed the highest abundance
(81.13%), whereas the lowest abundance (1.89%) of ladybird beetle species was found from C.
transversalis. Additionally, the accumulation curves for six times of observation exhibited a divergence
between 95% confidence interval of these curves, with the curve increasing slightly when the survey
stopped.
Keywords: Coccinellids, biodiversity, vegetables, Phitsanulok, Thailand
1. Introduction
Ladybrid beetles (Coeloptera: Coccinellidae) also known colloquially as ladybug or coccinellids,
are one of the most vital group of the natural predatory or enemy complex of several horticultural and
agricultural crop pests such as scale insects, mealy bugs, aphids, coccids and other soft-bodied arthropods
(Kring et al., 1985; Dixon, 2000; Omkar & Pervez, 2000; Akhavan et al., 2013). The coccinellid, like all
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beetles, undergoes a complete metamorphosis during its life with distinct egg, larval, pupal and adult
stages. Their life cycle is completed in one month depending upon prey, temperature as well as location;
two or three generations are usually produced in a year (Biranvand et al., 2014). The ladybird beetles are
considered as a great economic importance in agro-ecosystem through their successful employed in the
biological control of numerous injurious insect (Agarwala & Dixon, 1992). Coccinellids live in a variety
of habitats, including forests, fields, grasslands, gardens, and even in people's houses (Skaife, 1979).
Moreover, they are also regarded as bioindicators (Iperti & Paoletti, 1999) and provide more general
information about the ecosystem in which they occur (Andersen, 1999).
Thailand, one of the most biodiversity-rich countries in Southeast Asia, includes rich agricultural
areas, rivers and mountainous habitats. There are enormous numbers of insect species in Thailand
especially beetles. To date, more than 6,000 species of ladybird beetles are recorded around the world
(Vandenberg, 2002). While about 133 species of Thai coccinellid beetles, with 49 genera under six
subfamilies have been reported (Chuenram, 2002). However, the coccinellid diversity of Thailand is rich
but study on taxonomy is far lacking. The knowledge of their habitat and diversity will benefit in
identifying the predators and eventually use as biological control agents. Therefore, in this study, we
attempted to explore and estimate the species richness of the predatory coccinellid beetles inhabit in
vegetable crop from the organic farm, Bung Phara subdistrict, Phitsanulok province.
2. Materials and Methods
The survey was carried out during April to June, 2015 in vegetable growing areas of the Organic
Farming of Bung Phra community, Phitsanulok province, Thailand. The study involved the collection of
coccinellids from field crop by preservation and identification. A set of 100 x 100 m2 crop was set out for
survey. Based upon coccinellid diversity, a vegetable crop was repeatedly sampled every two weeks (six
times) by using hand picking (09:00 am – 12.00 pm). Adult beetles obtained from vegetable crop were
preserved in 95% alcohol for further identification. All adult beetles were morphologically identified to
species level using main published literatures of Chunram, (2002) and Giorgi and Vabdenberg (2012). A
rarefaction model was used to compare arthropod diversity among these stages of rice growth.
Rarefaction value and its 95% confidence interval were computed by EcoSim version 7.72 software
(Gotelli & Entsminger, 2004). Afterwards, the values of every stage groups were plotted as a function of
sampling effort. With this plot, significant difference in species diversity is indicated by an absence of
overlap in the confidence interval of rarefaction curves among eight different rice growth stages at
maximum sampling effort (Colwell et al., 2004).
3. Results and Discussion
In total, 53 predacious ladybird beetles adults were sampled and identified from the vegetable
crops at the Organic Farming, Bung Phra area, Phitsanulok province, Thailand, representing family
Coccinellidae Latreille, 1807. These species could be assigned to four described genera and four species
(Harmonia octomaculata (Fabricius, 1781); Coccinella transversalis Fabricius, 1871; Menochilus sexmaculatus
(Fabricius, 1781) and Micraspis discolour (Fabricius, 1798)). All of them were in the subfamily
Coccinellinae Latreille, 1808. The zoological names of all coccinellids are given in Table 1. The results
revealed that the ladybird beetle Micraspis discolor (Fabricius, 1798) gained from the vegetable fields
exhibited the highest abundance (81.13%), whereas the lowest abundance (1.89%) of ladybird beetle
species was found from Coccinella transversalis Fabricius, 1871. In the contrast, a previous different
survey of predatory coccinellid beetles at Mid Country (Sri Lanka) was conducted by Mayadunnage et al.
(2008). They reported that C. transversalis Fabricius, 1871 and was the most common species and found
frequently (27.01%) in the surveyed area, followed by M. discolor (Fabricius, 1798) (17.78%).
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Additionally, this study also differ from Poolprasert (2015) who surveyed on coccinellidsat the Organic
Agriculture Project, Sukhothai province, Thailand by yellow sticky trap. He found that Coelophora
inaequalis (Fabricius, 1775) obtained from the vegetable fields showed the highest abundance (28.57%),
whereas the lowest abundance (1.19%) of ladybug species was found from Coccinella transversalis
Fabricius, 1871, Nephus ryuguus (Kamiya, 1966) and Scymnus sodalis (Weise, 1923), respectively.
However, to increase the number of beetle species in the study area, it should be carried out at least two
seasonal crops or one year. Moreover, applying several collecting techniques such as sweep net, aspirator
band hand picking should be initiated for further survey.
Table 1. Predacious ladybird beetle species obtained from vegetable grown fields at the Bung Phra Organic
Farmming, Phitsanulok province, Thailand
No.
Relative abundance
(%)
Coccinella transversalis Fabricius, 1871
1
1.89
Menochilus sexmaculatus (Fabricius, 1781)
4
7.55
Micraspis discolor ( Fabricius, 1798)
43
81.13
Harmonia octomaculata (Fabricius, 1781)
5
9.43
Subfamily
Zoological name
Coccinellinae
Based upon richness estimate, rarefaction curves of the vegetable crop types showed slightly
increase at first and then level off (Figure 1). This study conformed to Majumder et al. (2013) who study
the diversity of coccinellids in agro habitat in India. On the other hand, the rarefaction curve of forest
habitat for their research showed saturation of species richness at high individual abundance in
comparison to agro-habitats. It was possible that moderate to least disturbed forested ecosystems might
influence ladybird beetle species richness which was evident from the more number of unique species
recorded in the forest habitat compare to agro-habitats.
Estimated no. of sspecies
4.5
4
3.5
3
Richness
2.5
2
95% CI(-)
1.5
95% CI(+)
1
0.5
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
Individuals
Figure. 1 Species richness for six time of survey of coccinellindae by rare-faction curve with ± 95% confidence intervals shown as
dotted lines.
The ladybird beetles are considered as natural enemies of several insect pests in an agricultural
system. It is useful for the integrated pest management (IPM) because natural control of insect pests is
one of the supportive tactics of IPM, which has been applied in this country since the early 1970 (Wright
et al., 2005). All beneficial coccinellids found in this survey may suggest that the farmers in the area
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understand their benefits. Sub-consequently, the cost of pest management strategy would be reduced and
the toxicity risk from synthetic insecticide application could be also declined. Besides, the results from
this precursory observation both extend the known zoogeographic distribution of the beetles species
encountered, and suggest it is worthwhile focusing on a more wide evaluation of this insect group. To this
end, studies are continuing to characterize the diversity of predatory coccinellids in Thailand.
4. Conclusion
Four distinguished species from four genera belonging to subfamily Coccinellinae Latreille,
1808; occupied in the organic farm (Bung Phra community), Phitsanulok province, Thailand. The species
were identified as, Coccinella transversalis Fabricius, 1871; Menochilus sexmaculatus (Fabricius, 1781);
Micraspis discolor (Fabricius, 1798) and Harmonia octomaculata (Fabricius, 1781). Out of all species
collected M. discolor was the most common species while C. transversalis, showed low frequently
finding in this survey areas. This study did not cover a full geographic rang of likely to habit in the
country, therefore further surveys are still required and are likely to reveal more recorded for the country.
Moreover, not only the farmer will realize the role of lady bug who acts a natural enemy in agriculture but
also the use of sampling strategy (supportive tactic) in both beneficial of harmful insects will be essential
to provide the valuable information for development of suitable sampling plan and optimum sample size
for vegetable integrated pest management (IPM) system.
Acknowledgements
The research was supported by a grant to PP from the Higher Education Research Promotion
(HERP), under contract no.: 2558A14262001 and to the SS from the research and Development Institute
(Contract No.: RDI-2-58-6-29). The author would like to thank all staffs at the Organic faroming, Bung
Phra, Phitsanulok province, Thailand for their support and assistance with this research. Finally,
appreciation is extended to Mr. Stuart Granger, London, UK for his kind suggestions and English
correction.
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