~ 616 ~ Journal of Entomology and Zoology Studies 2017; 5(2): 616-618 E-ISSN: 2320-7078 P-ISSN: 2349-6800 JEZS 2017; 5(2): 616-618 © 2017 JEZS Received: 20-01-2017 Accepted: 21-02-2017 IP Mohammad Department of Entomology, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, Rajasthan- 313001, India Ganesh S Purushan Department of Entomology, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, Rajasthan- 313001, India AK Meena Department of Entomology, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, Rajasthan- 313001, India R Swaminathan Department of Entomology, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, Rajasthan- 313001, India Correspondence IP Mohammad Department of Entomology, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, Rajasthan- 313001, India Diversity of coleopteran fauna in kharif pulses from three different locations of Southern Rajasthan IP Mohammad, Ganesh S Purushan, AK Meena and R Swaminathan Abstract An investigation on “Diversity of coleopteran fauna in kharif pulses” were carried out at the Department of Entomology, RCA, MPUAT, Udaipur, during the kharif season 2015 with a view to record the species diversity of coleopteran fauna in kharif pulses viz., blackgram greengram and cowpea at three locations (College Instructional farm, Farmer’s field at Vallabhnagar and Farmer’s field at Badgaon village). The conducted survey resulted in the collection of members of 8 coleopteran families (2 foliage feeding: Curculionidae and Chrysomelidae, 3 flowers and pods feeding: Scarabaeidae, Bruchidae and Meloidae and other families: Coccinellidae, Staphylinidae and Anthicidae). Based on relative density the curculionids and chrysomelids were dominant in pulse crops. The location-wise and as per crop Shannon diversity indices ranged from1.72 to 1.54 and maximum for the fauna in greengram at the farmer’s field of Vallabhnagar (1.72) and lowest for fauna in blackgram at farmer’s field of Badgaon (1.54). Keywords: Pulse crops, diversity indices, relative density, coleopteran fauna 1. Introduction Food legumes have been grown by farmers since millennia providing nutritionally balanced food to the people of India [1] and many other countries in the world. Pulses are the major source of protein in the vegetarian diet in our country; besides being a rich source of protein, they maintain soil fertility through biological nitrogen fixation in soil and thus play a vital role in furthering sustainable agriculture [2] . About 200 insect pests that belong to 48 families of Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, lsoptera, Lepidoptera, Orthoptera, Thysanoptera, and 7 species of mites of order Acarina are known to infest greengram and blackgram. Under severe infestation stem fly may alone cause more than 90 per cent damage to these crops with a yield loss of 20 per cent [3] . With regard to the insect fauna of order Coleoptera, some predatory coleopteran fauna are well known; but, many pestiferous insect fauna of Coleoptera happen to be incompletely documented for kharif pulses in Southern Rajasthan. Keeping these facts in view, the present investigation on the species-rich insect order Coleoptera associated with kharif pulse crops has been planned out with the objectives to study the species diversity of coleopteran fauna in pulse crops during kharif 2015. 2. Material and methods The cultivated pulse crops (greengram, blackgram and cowpea) at the Instructional Farm of Rajasthan College of Agriculture, MPUAT, Udaipur and the two farmer’s field one at village Badgaon and the other at Vallabhnagar, were observed for pestiferous and beneficial coleopteran (beetles and weevils) fauna during July to December, 2015. The collection was made from three different spots of the crop area selecting 10 plants at random, from each of the cultivated pulse crop at weekly intervals. In all 30 plants were sampled at one time in each crop. Standard sampling procedures for the different insect pests and natural enemies were followed making use of insect sweep net, aspirator, and hand picking as per requirement. The foliage and flower feeding coleopteran fauna including adult leaf beetles, chafer beetles and weevils and blister beetles were observed and collected during early hours (7 am to 9 am) of the day on the 10 selected plants and expressed as mean numbers per plant. The natural enemies of pestiferous insects belonging to order Coleoptera, the coccinellids and staphylinids were observed visually and counted. The collected insects were killed in a poison bottle charged with ethyl acetate. Larger insects were pinned and dry preserved and the smaller insects were preserved in ethanol (70%). The collected insects were grouped into families based on their morphological characteristics.