The insect taxa on cashew (ANACARDIUM OCCIDENTALE L.) plants during the flowering and fruiting periods in the Northern Region, Ghana

Abstract

There have been debates whether insects that visit cashew during the flowering and fruiting periods are the same. The main problem arises as whether the insects that visit the plant during the flowering are the same that visit during the fruiting period. Field survey was conducted in ten farms in the Northern Region from December 2014 to April 2015 to identify and assess insects taxa on cashew in farms close to natural forest and farms away from natural forest, during cashew flowering and fruiting periods. Total insect species enumerated in farms close to the forest during the flowering period was 6161, with a mean number of 1232.2 (SD = 250.7) and diversity of 3.34. In farms greater than 5km away from the forest, the total number of insect species enumerated was 2745, with a mean of 549 (SD = 103.2) and diversity of 3.56. During the fruiting period, total insect species collected in farms close to the forest was 4665, with a mean number of 933 (SD = 143.5) and diversity of 3.13. In farms away from the forest, total insect species enumerated was 2056, mean 411.2 (SD = 52.1) and diversity 3.14. Insect diversity was greater during the flowering period in farms close to the forest than the fruiting period. Also, no significant difference was found between the diversity of insects on cashew plant in farms close and away from the forest during both the flowering and the fruiting periods. Most of the species that occurred during the flowering period were not the same as those that occurred during the fruiting period though some shared the same family. The result also shows that insect composition was not influenced by closeness to forest