Response of insect species to fermented sugar and milk baited traps under field conditions

The wide distribution of insect fauna depends upon various biotic and abiotic factors in environment. Insect success is essentially contributed by their adaptability through diversity and dispersal in nature. The unpredictable weather conditions and stochastic variation in abundance of insect species contribute to sampling error in study. Moths, butterflies, flies, ants and beetles are attracted to various feeding baits. Volatile compounds emanating from fermented feeding baits showed good response towards insect attraction especially dipteran flies, when used separately compared to other combinations. However, Ethanol and Water alone showed no response to insect attraction and stimulation. Fermented sugars were superior in attracting significant numbers of insects compared to fermented milk, and other combinations with ethanol. The stimulatory efficacy of various feeding baits across the different insect orders under field trapping experiments showed a varied response from various radii (EAR). The studies aimed to identify insect texa found in cold arid region of Zanaskar region and compare their response toward various feeding baits under open conditions that varied significantly as represented by Chi Square (χ2) and Kruskal Wallis test, with data following Z and Chi Square (χ2) distribution. The maximum values of Shannon-Wener diversity were 2.08 in Diptera followed by Lepidoptera and hymenoptera. Simpson diversity recorded for Diptera was 0.835. Insect Population responses to various baits in two years were set normal (Z-test) represented graphically. The study was not limited to any particular order; traps were hanged from willow and populous tress growing in the region. The results identified 6 insect orders comprised of 16 species from 9 genera during two years of studies with distribution represented by Hurlbert rarefaction curve.