Muhammad Adnan Bodlah¹, Imran Bodlah^2*, Muhammad Tariq Rasheed², Ammara Gull e Fareen^2,4, Kamran Ikram¹, Zafar Iqbal², Roshan Zada³

¹Fareed Biodiversity Conservation Centre, Department of Agricultural Engineering, Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology, Rahim Yar Khan, Punjab, Pakistan

²Insect Biodiversity and Conservation Group, Department of Entomology, Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

³Director Technical, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, Islamabad, Pakistan

⁴Department of Environmental Sciences, Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

 Abstract

Beetles belonging to family Coccinellidae are predators of various sucking insect pests, some of them are phytophageous. A lot of work for the exploration of these beetles has been done in Pakistan. Layyah being a multi crop area was selected as study area for the exploration of Coccinellidae beetles. A survey was conducted for the collection of Coccinellidae adult specimens from the territory of Layyah district of southern Punjab, Pakistan, during 2018-19. A total 568 adult specimens were collected from seven localities. Out of which, ladybird beetles belonging to seven genera, with ten species namely; Coccinella septempunctata Linnaeus, 1758, Brumoides suturalis (Fabricius, 1798), Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata (Fabricius, 1775, Henosepilachna elaterii (Rossi, 1794), Hippodamia variegata (Goeze, 1777), Scymnus (Pullus) quadrillum Motschulsky, 1858, Scymnus (Pullus) posticalis Sicard, 1913, Scymnus (Scymnus) nubilus Mulsant, 1850,  Micraspis allardi (Mulsant, 1866), Pharoscymnus flexibilis (Mulsant, 1853), have been recorded with their prey and host plants for the first time from the surveyed area. The coccinellids distribution is also given and map was prepared by using ArcGIS map tool. Explored predatory beetles may be used as bio-control agents in the region for the management of various sucking insect pests of various crops, fruits vegetables etc.

Keywords: Ladybird beetles, Coccinellidae, Predators, Diversity, Taxonomy, Layyah, Punjab