The Journal of Zoology Studies

1-4

Authors: Jeyaparvathi, S

Spiders play an important role in regulating insect pests in the agricultural ecosystem. There are a large number of species, many of them with high population densities. A survey was conducted in the Ayya Nadar Janaki Ammal College campus from January, 2011 - March, 2011. 29 individuals were collected representing 11 families and 21 genera. From these, 25 species were present throughout the campus; however, only 5 of these were taken in the ground, they are the ground dwellers. Peucetia viridana (Stolizcka), Oxyopes hindostanicus (Tikader), Lycosa pseudoannulata (Bosenberg) and Plexippus petersi, were common. P. viridana was the dominant species followed by O. hindostanicus, L. pseudoannulata, P. petersi and G. poonaensis respectively. P. viridana comprised 75% of the fauna in these respective areas.

12-18

Authors: Mahalakshmi R. and S. Jeyaparvathi

Biodiversity can be simply defined as the variety of all types of living organism. Spiders are among the most diverge groups on earth, which received the seventh ranking in global diversity after the sixth largest insect orders. Spiders are major playing a vital role in the forest ecosystem is the spiders. In our present study spiders were collected from cotton field area of Thailakulam, Srivilliputtur taluk, Virudhunagar district, Tamil Nadu, India. The spiders were collected from September 2012 to February 2013, using the sweep net, hand ricking, aerial netting, beating method and leaf litter method etc. During this study, 19 species belonging to 18 genera and eight families were collected from cotton field. The scientific knowledge up to species level and taxonomic position and seasonal variation has been studied. The family Salticidae (31.57) harboured highest population followed by three families such as, Araneidae, Lycosidae and Oxyopidae (15.78) and the least number of spiders recorded under the family, Tetragnathidae, Gnaphosidae, Sparassidae and Thomisidae. The richness of the spider species based on the fluctuation in different months may be the seasonal variation and harvesting in the nearby fields in the study area. The population of spiders was abundant species richness and diversity was high during the month of September 2012 to February, 2013. Mean, standard deviation and diversity indices were calculated.

22-25

Authors: Vijayalakshmi C.K, Tintumol K and Vinodkumar P.K

The potential of neem based products are well exploited in agriculture for the effective management of pests. Insect pests are one of the major threats to coffee industry and coffee berry borer is one among them. Several pesticides have been screened and recommended since many years for the control of berry borer, Several plant based products are now available for management of pests. Present paper discusses efficiency of few commercial neem based insecticides in field as well as in laboratory to control berry borer. Jawan, Nimbicidin, Neem guard and Achook at 1% and 2% dosages were tested in lab as well as in field. The study concluded that the field efficacy of neem products is poor compared to laboratory trials. Field trial using neem oil on berry borer infestation showed that neem has a pronounced repellent action on the pest. Being a beverage the quality of coffee is of prime concern and the relevance of experiments with biopesticides which leaves no residue on the final product after application gains importance.