Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2021) 10(03): 974-984

International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 10 Number 02 (2021) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com

Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2021.1003.124

A Preliminary Study on Diversity and Community Structure of Phytoseiid Mites associated with Medicinal Plants in Selected Locations of Telangana

Md. Iftiar Hossain Molla, Priyankar Mondal, Suvash Ch. Bala* and Krishna Karmakar

Department of Agricultural Entomology, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, West Bengal-741252, India

*Corresponding author

ABSTRACT

In the present study, an investigation was carried out to explore the K eyw or ds diversity and community structures of phytoseiid mite fauna associated

Phytoseiidae, with medicinal plants in four selected locations viz. Ananthagiri, CSIR- Diversity, CIMAP campus, Kotapally and Eturangaram sanctuary situated in Medicinal Plants, Telangana, Southern, Northern and Central agroclimatic zones of Telangana. A total of

Community 515 specimens were collected during the present survey belonging to 8 structure, Mite genera and 13 species of which alstoniae (23%), Amblyseius fauna largoensis (22%), Euseius ovalis (15%), Euseius astrictus (6%) and Article Info Phytoseius kapuri (2%) were the most abundant species. Comparing all the

Accepted: survey locations, Eturangaram sanctuary with natural vegetation of 10 February 2021 medicinal plants revealed maximum diversity of species whereas scanty Available Online: vegetation of Ananthagiri hills yielded the least diversity of phytoseiid 10 March 2021 mites.

Introduction Telangana State Medicinal Plant Board has implemented various scheme to encourage the Telangana state is a newly formed southern farmers for cultivation of medicinal plants in region state of India, created by bifurcating the farm through subsidies and also train the Andhra Pradesh state on 2nd June 2014. The people for collection of medicinal plants from total geographical area of Telangana state is the forest land for upkeeping the livelihood of 112.07 lakh hectares, of which 23.89 % area is the tribal people and helps in marketing the covered by forest and about 43.20 % area is products (Sivaramana and Kumar, 2018). under cultivation (Bhargavi, 2017). Over 2000 According to the World Health Organization, species of medicinal plants are found in 80% of the population in the developing Telangana state (Singh and Vidyasagar, 2015). countries depends upon the traditional and

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Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2021) 10(03): 974-984 herbal medicines in their primary healthcare 2004; Gupta and Karmakar, 2011 and Haneef (Pramanik, 2004). Indeed, several modern and Sadanandan 2013). Due to insufficient drugs are manufactured from phytochemicals information available concerning phytoseiid extracted from plants with medicinal mite fauna associated with medicinal plants in importance. Healthy plant material is therefore the state of Telangana, the present essential for maintaining product quality. investigation was carried out to explore the However, both quality and quantity are diversity of phytoseiid mite complex on adversely affected by the damage of medicinal plants found in selected locations of phytophagous insect and mite pests and this state. diseases during their growth and development. Materials and Methods The mites belonging to the family () and Cheyletidae, Study area Cunaxidae, Stigmaeidae, Bdellidae, Tydeidae, and Anystidae (Prostigmata) are plants Locations for collecting phytoseiid mites inhabiting pro-active predators to soft-bodied associated with medicinal plants from the insects and phytophagous mite pests in agri- three different agro-climatic zones of horticultural crops all over the world. Among Telangana were nominated based on the the entire predatory mite group, phytoseiids availability of required vegetation and also are the most important and commercially because these locations represent overall agro- exploited owing to their high searching climatic features of the respective zones. capacity, good adaptability to a wide Kotapally from Northern Telangana, environmental condition, short life span Eturangaram Sanctuary from Central (1week approx.) and high multiplication Telangana, Ananthagiri and CSIR-CIMAP capability (40-60 off-springs per female) from Southern Telangana were selected for the (Gerson et al., 2003). Under the vision of current investigation (Figure 1). Edagatta sustainable farming, these predators can be forest and nearby localities (18055’40”N, utilised in the biological control and integrated 79049’12”E; 18056’1”N,79048’53”E; pest management strategies against different 18055’58”N,79049’28”E) in Kotapally; forest crop pests. Therefore, it is utterly important to areas near Warangal- Eturangaram road and know about the diversity of various phytoseiid Burgampadu-Eturangaram road (18018’31”N, mite species to employ effective pest 80025’25”E 18018’57”N, 80025’1”E management strategies for cultivated 18018’20”N, 80024’40”E) in Eturangaram medicinal crops. Till now the family sanctuary; vegetations near Vikarabad-Tandur Phytoseiidae contains more than 2,400 species road and birding site (17018’42”N, 77051’5”E; worldwide (Demite et al., 2018) and every 17018’50”N, 77051’58”E) of Ananthagiri hills year new species are being added to this list. forest and medicinal plant garden of CSIR- Faunistic studies on Phytoseiidae of the CIMAP (17025’34”N, 78034’45”E) were country have been explored since the 1960s. selected to collect the specimens of phytoseiid More than 235 species of Phytoseiidae are mites during the present survey. described and reported from India (Karmakar and Gupta, 2014; Pramanik and Karmakar, Collection and preservation of specimens 2016; Karmakar et al., 2017 and Karmakar and Bhowmik, 2018) of which only a few The phytoseiid mite fauna harbouring on species has been reported to be associated different species of medicinal plants as well as with medicinal plants so far (Lahiri et al., medicinally important forest plants were

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Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2021) 10(03): 974-984 examined by making extensive surveys Type specimens of the collected species are covering different locations of Telangana presented in plate 1. province during February 2020. Phytoseiid mites are generally bigger in size and fast- Statistical analysis moving in nature. To understand the diversity and community They were collected directly from the plant structure of different phytoseiid mite species with the help of fine camel hairbrush (size in selected locations the number of specimens 000) and then preserved in 70% alcohol until for each species was enumerated reflecting the permanent slides were prepared. Besides, a species richness (S) and the following direct beating method was adopted i.e., simply diversity and evenness indices were calculated beating the plant parts over black cardboard based on the formulae provided by Shannon- and the dislodged mites were collected by Weiner (1963)and Simpson (1949): using a single hairbrush. Shannon’s diversity index (H) The mite specimens were preserved in a = ; separate small plastic vial containing 70% alcohol mentioning the name of the host and where the p is the proportion (n/N) of the location. Besides the targeted phytoseiid individuals of one particular species found (n) fauna, the associated phytophagous mite and divided by the total number of individuals soft bodied insects were also collected and found (N), ln is the natural log, Σ is the sum of identified as potential prey for documented the calculations, and s is the number of phytoseiid predators though direct feeding of species. The effective number of species these prey species was not observed during (ENS) of each location was calculated taking present investigation. the exponential of H.

Identification of specimens Simpson’s index (D)

The specimens were brought to the Acarology = 1− ; laboratory (All India Network Project on

Agricultural Acarology), Department of where N stands for the total number of Agricultural Entomology, Bidhan Chandra individuals in a community and n stands for Krishi Viswavidyalaya, West Bengal. The the number of individuals of a particular collected mite specimens were poured in a species. Species evenness was calculated from cavity block and mounted on modified Pielou’s evenness index (E) Berlese’s medium for identification. Then the 0 0 slides were dried in an oven at 40 -45 C for 7 Pielou’s evenness index (E) days. = ;

The mites were examined with a phase and differential interference contrast microscope where H is Shannon’s diversity index and s is (BX 53, Olympus) and the phytoseiid species the total number of species in the surveyed were identified following the keys provided by area (Pielou, 1975). The coefficient of Chant & McMurty (2007). The specimens similarity between the surveyed locations was collected for the present study are deposited in estimated based on the Sorenson’s coefficient Acarology laboratory of the same institute. (CC)

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Sorenson’s coefficient (CC) and E=0.83 in comparison to the CSIR- = ; CIMAP which exhibited the indices as 1.65, 5, 0.79 and 0.79 respectively. Compared to the natural vegetation of Kotapally, medicinal Where C is the number of species the two plants sampled in the campus of CSIR- communities have in common, S1 is the total CIMAP are artificially maintained in number of species found in community 1, and agroecosystems which may lead to the S2 is the total number of species found in reduction of species diversity in this location. community 2 (Sorenson, 1957). The number of plants surveyed was also less Results and Discussion in CSIR-CIMAP campus than the surveyed area of Kotapally which may be another A total of 515 specimens of Phytoseiid mites reason for reduced diversity in this belonging to 8 genera and 13 species were area.Amblyseius largoensis and collected from the natural and cultivated Typhlodromips syzygii were the dominant vegetations of medicinal plants in Ananthagiri, species (25% each) in Kotapally followed by Kotapally, CSIR-CIMAP and Eturangaram Amblyseius brachycalyx (20%) and Euseius sanctuary located in different agroclimatic alstoniae (15%). Present survey in CSIR- zones of Telangana (Table 1). Diversity and CIMAP campus revealed the highest diversity proportional abundance of the phytoseiid of Euseius alstoniae (33%) followed by species in selected locations are presented in Euseius ovalis (25%) and Euseius astrictus figure 2. The phytoseiid community structures (19%). Surprisingly, a single specimen of of these areas are furnished in Table 2 and 3. Euseius sundarbanensis was discovered from CIMAP which was not reported earlier from Sampling in the Eturangaram sanctuary Southern India. revealed highest species richness (S=9) among the four survey locations followed by Community structure of Phytoseiid species in Kotapally and CSIR-CIMAP with S=8 and Ananthagiri hills revealed lowest species Ananthagiri with S=7. diversity in terms of H=1.60, ENS=5, D=0.77 and E=0.82 probably due to less vegetation in Also, the Eturangaram sanctuary had the the surveyed areas. Euseius ovalis (30%) was highest diversity of Phytoseiid species in the predominant species in this region terms of H=1.76 with moderate species followed by Typhlodromips syzygii (28%) and evenness of 0.80 and 6 effective number of Euseius alstoniae (24%). species but lowest D=0.76 which reflects an environment highly favourable for few species The Sorenson's coefficient revealed extremely while not so favourable for others. Amblyseius high community overlap or similarity between largoensis was the dominant species (40%) in the species complex of Ananthagiri and this region followed by Euseius alstroniae Kotapally followed by a moderately high (21%) and Euseius ovalis (15%). Surprisingly, overlap of species complex between Kotapally 4 species of phytoseiids viz. Asperoseius and CSIR-CIMAP. jujubae, Phytoseius jujubae, Neoseiulus longispinosus and Paraphytoseius orientalis At the same time, the species complex of were found only in Eturangaram sanctuary Eturangaram sanctuary when compared with among the surveyed locations. Despite having Kotapally, Ananthagiri and CSIR-CIMAP similar species richness, Kotapally had higher exhibited the lowest coefficient reflecting very diversity in terms of H=1.70, ENS=8, D=0.80 less overlap between these communities. 977

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Table.1 Diversity of Phytoseiid mite fauna associated with different medicinal plants in selected locations of Telangana

Location Name of host plants Name of Phytoseiid Potential prey found Number of species during survey collected specimens of Phytoseiid mites Ananthagiri Millettia pinnata Amblyseius brachycalyx Bemisia tabaci 3 (Southern Vachellianilotica Karmakar, Bhowmik & Telangana) Ricinus communis Sherpa, 2017 Alstoniascholaris Amblyseius largoensis Raoiella indica 4 Tabernaemonta (Muma, 1955) nadivaricata Euseius alstroniae (Gupta, Eriophyid sp. 23 Bougainvillea glabra 1975) Nerium oleander Euseius astrictus Eriophyid sp. 9 Anacardium occidentale Karmakar & Bhowmik, Cocos lucifera 2018 Earleaf acacia Euseius ovalis (Evans, Tetranychusurticae, 29 Tecoma stans 1953) Polyphagotarsonemus Azadirachta indica latus Limoniaacidissima Phytoseius kapuri (Gupta, Tetranychus urticae 2 Sapindusmukorossi 1969b) Earleaf acacia Typhlodromips syzygii Tetranychus 27 Senna auriculata (Gupta, 1975) macfarlanei Catharanthus roseus Kotapally Phoenix dactylifera Amblyseius brachycalyx Polyphagotarsonemus 44 (Northern Santalum album Karmakar, Bhowmik & latus, Telangana) Mangifera indica Sherpa, 2017 Tetranychus urticae Ziziphus mauritiana Amblyseius largoensis Tetranychus urticae, 54 Ficus racemosa (Muma, 1955) Tetranychus Holarrhenapubescens macfarlanei, Ocimum sanctum Eriophyid sp. Manilkara zapota Euseius alstroniae (Gupta, Polyphagotarsonemus 42 Citrus aurantifolia 1975) latus, Moringa oleifera Bemisia tabaci Mangifera indica Euseius astrictus - 4 Annona reticulata Karmakar & Bhowmik, Psidium guajava 2018 Carica papaya Euseius ovalis (Evans, Tetranychus 12 Senna auriculata 1953) macfarlanei Terminalia arjuna Phytoseius kapuri (Gupta, - 3 Millettia pinnata 1969b) Emblica officinalis Typhlodromips syzygii Polyphagotarsonemus 53 Manilkara hexandra (Gupta, 1975) latus Butea monosperma Eriophyid sp. Cyperus rotundus Typhlodromus - 4

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Ocimimamericanum (Anthoseius) sp. Ocimumbasillicum Morus alba Cassia fistula Cleistanthuscollinus Hibiscus rosa-sinensis Psidium cattleyanum Ficus religiosa Alangiumsalviifolium Ficus religiosa CIMAP Artocarpus Amblyseius brachycalyx Tetranychus ludeni 5 (Southern heterophyllus Karmakar, Bhowmik & Telengana) Nycthanthesarbor- Sherpa, 2017 tristis Amblyseius largoensis Polyphagotarsonemus 1 Bougainvillea glabra (Muma, 1955) latus Calophylluminophyllum Euseius alstroniae (Gupta, Eriophyid sp. 22 Monoonlongifolium 1975) Psidium guajava Euseius astrictus Bemisia tabaci 13 Simarouba glauca Karmakar & Bhowmik, Sapindusmukorossi 2018 Leucaena leucocephala Euseius ovalis (Evans, Polyphagotarsonemus 17 Murrayakoenigii 1953) latus Azadirachta indica Euseius sundarbanensis - 1 Withaniasomnifera Karmakar & Bhowmik, Aegle marmelos 2018 Mimusopselengi Phytoseius kapuri (Gupta, Tetranychus urticae 1 Curcuma longa 1969b) Justicia adhatoda Bombax ceiba Melia dubia Typhlodromus Polyphagotarsonemus 7 Ocimum sanctum (Anthoseius) sp. latus Tamarindus indica Eturangara Ricinus communis Amblyseius largoensis Tetranychus ludeni 54 m sanctuary Bougainvillea glabra (Muma, 1955) (Central Tecoma stans Asperoseius jujubae - 6 Telengana) Spathodeacampanulata Karmakar & Bhowmik, Limoniaacidissima 2018 Earleaf acacia Euseius alstroniae (Gupta, Polyphagotarsonemus 28 Catharanthus roseus 1975) latus, Mangifera indica Eriophyid sp. Ziziphus mauritiana Euseius astrictus - 3 Manilkara zapota Karmakar & Bhowmik, Moringa oleifera 2018 Psidium guajava Euseius ovalis (Evans, Tetranychus urticae 20 Senna auriculata 1953)

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Butea monosperma Paraphytoseius orientalis Polyphagotarsonemus 5 Morus alba (Narayanan, Kaur &Ghai, latus Cassia fistula 1960) Hibiscus rosa-sinensis Phytoseius kapuri (Gupta, Eriophyid sp. 4 Monoonlongifolium 1969) Murrayakoenigii Azadirachta indica Phytoseius jujubae (Gupta, - 5 Ocimum sanctum 1977) Carica papaya Neoseiulus longispinosus Tetranychus ludeni 10

Table.2 Community structure of Phytoseiid mite species associated with Medicinal plants in selected locations of Telangana

Sampled Species Shannon ENS Simpson’s Pielou’s communities richness Index (H) Index (D) Index (E) (S) Ananthagiri (C1) 7 1.60 5 0.77 0.82 Kotapally (C2) 8 1.70 8 0.80 0.83 CSIR-CIMAP (C3) 8 1.65 5 0.79 0.79 Eturangaram 9 1.76 6 0.76 0.80 sanctuary(C4)

Fig.1 Survey locations in three agroclimatic zones of Telangana (Map modified from https://pjtsau.edu.in/research.html)

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Table.3 Species overlap between selected Phytoseiid communities associated with medicinal plants of Telangana

C1C2 C1C3 C1C4 C2C3 C2C4 C3C4 0.93 0.8 0.63 0.87 0.60 0.60

Fig.2 Diversity and proportional abundance of Phytoseiid species in Telangana

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Plate.1 Representatives of the phytoseiid fauna collected from the medicinal plants of Telangana: A. Amblyseius brachycalyx, B. Amblyseiuslargoensis, C. Asperoseius jujubae, D. Euseius alstroniae, E. Euseius astrictus, F. Euseius ovalis, G. Euseiussundar banensis, H. Neoseiulus longispinosus, I. Paraphytoseius orientalis, J. Phytoseius jujubae, K. Phytoseius kapuri, L. Typhlodromips syzygii

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In the present investigation, Amblyseius Acknowledgement largoensis, Euseius alstoniae, Euseius ovalis, Euseius astrictus and Phytoseius kapuri were The authors are grateful to Vice-Chancellor, found as the most common species comprising Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya and respectively 22%, 23%, 15%, 6% and 2% of Co-ordinator, All India Network Project on the total specimens which reflects a Agricultural Acarology for providing considerably high abundance of these species necessary funds and facilities for this study. across all the selected locations of Telangana. The first author is grateful to Pavan Thakoor Among the other species, Typhlodromips from Department of Agricultural Entomology, syzygii (16%) collected from Ananthagiri and BCKV for his support during the survey in Kotapally and Amblyseius brachycalyx (10%) Telangana. collected from Ananthagiri, Kotapally and CSIR-CIMAP exhibited a moderate References abundance. These predatory mites were found to be associated with number of herbivore Bhargavi, P. H., 2017. Implementation of E- mite and insect species such as POS and Aadhaar Enabled Fertilizer Polyphagotarsonemus latus, Raoiella indica, Distribution System; A Case Study of Tetranychus spp. Eriophyid species, Bemisia Rangareddy District, Telangana State. tabaci etc. but exact predator-prey relationship Amity Journal of Media & was not established. Tetranychus spp. and Communications Studies 1; 7(1). Polyphagotarsonemus latus were found to be Chant, D. A. and McMurtry J. A., 2007. most abundant and potential prey species Illustrated keys and diagnosis for the during this survey. genera and sub genera of the Phytoseiisdae of the world ( The present study reflects an overall diversity Mesostigmata). Indira Publishing and abundance of phytoseiid mites associated House, Michigan, U.S.A. 220 pp. with different medicinal plants of Telangana. Demite, P. R., deMoraes, G. J., McMurtry, J. The natural vegetations of Eturangaram forest A., Denmark, H. A. and Castilho, R. C. in Central Telangana zone reflected the 2018. Phytoseiidae Database. highest diversity and species richness Available online at: followed by the natural vegetations of www.lea.esalq.usp.br/ phytoseiidae Kotapally in Northern Telangana Zone. The (Accessed June 09, 2019). outcomes of this investigation will serve as Gerson, U., Smiley, R. L. and Ochoa, R., one of the most important references for future 2003. Mites (Acari) for pest control. faunistic studies of phytoseiid mites in Oxford: Blackwell Science. Telangana. However, further survey and Gupta, S. K. &Karmakar, K., 2011. Diversity sampling in these regions are required to of mites (Acari) on medicinal and explore and describe the unknown and aromatic plants in India. Acarology rediscover the known species of phytoseiid XIII Proceedings of the International mites associated with medicinal and other Congress, Zoosymposia 6:504pp. economically important plants and predator Haneef, S. and Sadanandan, M. A., 2013. prey relationship with associated Survey of predatory mites (Acari: phytophagous mite and insect species requires Phytoseiidae) associated with to be thoroughly investigated for formulating economically important plants of north effective biological control modules. Kerala. In Biological Forum-An International Journal 5(2): 119-122pp.

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How to cite this article:

Md. Iftiar Hossain Molla, Priyankar Mondal, Suvash Ch. Bala and Krishna Karmakar. 2021. A Preliminary Study on Diversity and Community Structure of Phytoseiid Mites associated with Medicinal Plants in Selected Locations of Telangana. Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci. 10(03): 974-984. doi: https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2021.1003.124

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