The Journal of Zoology Studies

01-03

Authors: Rukhsana K and Majeed PP

The Coconut black-headed caterpillar, Opisina arenosella Walker is a notorious pest of coconut in Kerala. Most damage is recorded from India and Srilanka. Caterpillars of this oecophorid prefer to live in a gallery of frassy material and they feed on leaf chlorophyll matter. O. arenosella causes significant yield losses in coconut crops, but there is a lack of scientific information whether this pest can be controlled effectively using biocontrol agents. This paper describes the effects of the parasitoid, Bracon brevicornis (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) on larvae of O. arenosella. The adult B. brevicornis gave excellent control of larvae of O. arenosella. These findings suggest that, repeated release of B. brevicornis was very effective. By controlling O. arenosella, using B. brevicornis is 78% of recovery was finally attained

07-12

Authors: Sankarsan Roy, Amit Kumar Gayen, Bulganin Mitra, Anup Duttagupta

The study was carried out at agricultural land of Phaldi, near Duttapukur (North 24 parganas, West Bengal, India) during 2012-2013 to document the diurnal insect diversity, their activities, roles and abundance in mustard (Brassica juncea L.) flower. 24 insect species belonging to 14 families under six orders were found at the day time in mustard blooms among which four species (Apis dorsata, Apis cerena, Apis florea, Vespa sp.) are pollen and nectar collectors (Pollinators), 13 insects were only nectar collector and rest species were only visitors. Number of species of order Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera were high at day time. But the abundance of Hymenoptera was observed maximum followed by Coleoptera and Lepidoptera during this study. Peak activity of the insect visitors was mainly observed at the middle of the day i.e. from 12 noon to 2 P.M. Among the three honey bee species the abundance of A. dorsata was maximum (18%) followed by A. cerena (15%) and A. florea (4%). It was observed that the different weather conditions effect the abundance of honeybees.

15-18

Authors: Muhammad Kashif and Munawar Saleem Ahmad

Geographical seroprevalence of Anaplasmamarginale(T) in sheep, Ovisaries (L) was done from January-May, 2012 in district Peshawar which is a crowded area of Pakistan. In this area sheep’s infection with A. marginale is not reported before. For this purpose, 376 serum samples were obtained conveniently from 4 different breeds of sheep, from different geographical areas of Peshawar. An indirect ELISA using recombinant MSP-5 as antigen of A. marginale, was performed. Totally, 92/376 (24.47%) of the overall sheep sera were positive. In 6 areas of Peshawar, Peshthakhara and Mashokhel area were found highly infected i.e. 32.00% and 32.00% respectively, while Ghazi baba area was less infected comparatively. This is the first record of A. marginaleshowing high rate infection in sheep in Peshawar, Pakistan, This research should be useful in epidemiological applications.