Abstract
Pakistan’s population extremely relies on cereals for their daily food requirements. Cereal crops are vulnerable to many pest
species particularly aphids. In the wake of economic well-being and food security these bio-weapons must be controlled. In
that context biological control by predators is a sustainable management strategy to solve ecological problems with
environmental concerns. This study was aimed to identify Coccinellids as potential predators of aphids and their spatiotemporal organization patterns in cereal crops that would help in developing biological control program in this area. A survey
at large scale was conducted to assess the abundance of predatory Coccinellids in cereal crops with respect to seasonal rhythms
in district Faisalabad. A total of eighteen Coccinellid predator species were identified representing fourteen, eleven and six
species in wheat, maize and rice crops, respectively. The dominant Coccinellid species encountered was Coccinella
septemptunctata. Coccinellid predator’s density was greater 80.6% in wheat than in maize 13.54% and rice 5.74% crops.
Highest value of H' (1.6760) was estimated for maize and least for wheat (1.0585) crop. Evenness (E) was observed to be
greater in rice 0.8068 cropland while highest value of dominance (D) 0.5989 was determined in wheat. Mean period of maximal
diversity and abundance for Coccinellidae was early spring as maximum abundance 52.04% was recorded in February and
March 2016 only. The data of these months together yielded 37.12% of Coccinellid abundance compared with rest of months.
Species abundance decreased with higher rainfall, warmer temperature while increased with higher air moisture. Significant
variations in richness and abundance among sites, crops and months are concordant. As these species occurred at high densities
in the fields enough to reduce aphid damage in the cereal crops. Therefore, the spatial and temporal organization patterns of
Coccinellids, as revealed in this study might be helpful in developing the natural biological control strategy against pests for
regulation of the cereal agro-ecosystem.
