Insect Biodiversity of Sudan

Insect in the Sudan are estimated at 500,000 species representing different families. Collecting of Sudanese insect was initiated by European missionaries and tourists who used to travel through the country on their way to the Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia. In 1906 an insect collection was entomological specimens. Later on the collection was transferred to Wad Medani (the headquarters of the National Agricultural Research Corporation-ARC). Insect flourish or diminsh as a result of climatic changes, habitat alterations or human interference. These factors may lead to the addition of new occupants, the elimination of established groups or their displacemet by more competent rivals. The influence of man on the insect fauna was predominantly antagonistic to his welfare. The clearance of highly diverse natural ecosystem to be replaced by oversimplified monoculture system has favored the survival of very few phytophagous species and led to explosive outbreaks of highly destructive pests. The extensive and intensive use of pesticides has adversely affected protein feeders more than phytophagous species and this is another major cause of ecological instability and stimulant of pest outbreaks. Main crop associated species are classified as parasitoids and predators in different orders such as Hymenopetra, Diptera, Coleoptera, Hymiptera and many others. For nearly 60 years the Natural History Museum in London has been providing free identification services for Sudan. After the levying of identification fees in 1976 identification services are sought only in very urgent cases. Insect are most numerous groups of animals on earth. They constitute about 50of the total living organisms and 72of the animal kingdom. Insect aare generally considered as harmful creatures that need to be dectroyed. The people tend to overlook the importance of the majority of the insects in maintaining the ecological balance, suppressing destructive insect pests, removing the dead and decomposing bodies of plants and animals from erth's surface, enhancing soil fertility, pollinating flowering plants and providing food and medicine. The available information on insect diversity is very limited. This is mainly because most of the collection and identification expeditions have been so localized in their coverage and only targeting the destructive insect-arthropod pests of crops and domestic animals. Not only that, but, even insect pests of forest trees have received little or no attention at all. Furthermore, very little information on the natural enemies of the various insect pests has been gathered.