Ecological studies on foliage arthropods among different citrus orchard, Citrus reticulata Blanco cv. kinnow mandarin, Citrus reticulata Blanco cv. Feutrell's early and mosambi (Citrus limetta)

In the tropic and sub-tropic areas, citrus is very important fruit in term of production and it is cultivated worldwide. Arthropods consist of insects and arachnids those destroy the foliage of citrus plant. Foliage is the leaves of plant those are eaten by the different types of arthropods that live on as well as visit these plants for feed on them. Ecological studies are conducted to record basically the interaction of arthropods with different plants and abiotic factors like temperature, wind speed, humidity and to check the level of damage due to arthropods in any ecosystem. Hence, the present study was conducted to record foliage arthropods densities among citrus orchards: Mosambi (Citrus limetta), Fruiter (Citrus reticulata Blanco CV. Feutrell's Early) and Kinnow (Citrus reticulate Blanco CV. Kinnow mandarin) under the ecological conditions of district Faisalabad (Punjab), Pakistan. Among Mosambi orchards, total 56 species were recorded belonging to 06 orders, 34 families and 49 genera, whereas among Feutrell's Early orchards, total 55 species were counted pertaining to 8 orders 35 families and 47 genera. However, among Kinnow orchards, total 51 species belonging to 07 orders, 31 families and 45 genera were recorded. Among three orchards, total 3819 specimens were collected during entire sampling and maximum population was recorded from Kinnow orchards 37.37% (N = 1427), followed by Mosambi orchards 32.16% (N = 1228) and least population were recorded from Fruiter orchards 30.48% (N = 1164). Diversity (HI) was recorded maximum among kinnow mandarin orchards (0.3568) than mosambi orchards (0.3070) and least was recorded among Feutrell's early orchards (0.2910). Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) between three orchards showed non-significant result (F = 0.04; P = 0.9651). Kruskal-Wallis test confirmed that predictions recorded in case of ANOVA (F = 0.01; P = 0.9892).