Insect Faunal Diversity and Abundance from Three Pummelo (Citrus maxima [Burm.] Merr.) Orchards in Davao Province, Philippines

Abstract

This study was conducted to measure insect faunal diversity and abundance from the three pummelo orchards with varying pest management characteristics in Davao del Norte, Philippines. Pest management activities of the farmers were the basis of classifying the three orchards into site 1 = “pesticide-free with permanent vegetation ground cover pummelo orchard”; site 2 = “diversified organic pummelo orchard”; site 3 = “commercial pummelo orchard”. Three sampling techniques were employed to record insect abundance and diversity, these were: Malaise trap, yellow pan trap, and a light trap. Malaise and yellow pan traps were installed for one week period per month simultaneously from the three sites. Light trap was installed once a month, particularly during the new moon period. Results revealed higher insect faunal family richness and diversity indices; more even distribution of insect numbers and with low dominance index in pesticide-free (site 1) and diversified organic pummelo (site 2) orchards. The commercial pummelo orchard (site 3) obtained very poor ecological indices values. Moreover, the pesticide-free and diversified organic pummelo orchards obtained very high similarity index indicating the same arthropod family compositions between the two sites.