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Assessment of insect invaders of decaying banana and plantain (<i>musa spp.</i>) Pseudo stems in Umuagwo, Ohaji – Egbema local government area, Imo state, Nigeria


LC Nwosu
IA Lawal

Abstract

Insect invaders of decaying banana and plantain pseudo stems in Umuagwo, Ohaji-Egbema, Imo State were investigated in randomly selected crop plots near living homes (<500 m) and far from
living homes (.500m). Investigation was done by the use of trapping systems, dissections of cut decaying pseudo stems and culturing of immature stages of insects to adulthood. A total of 10 insect
orders of economic and medical/veterinary importance were sampled. Members of the orders Coleoptera 903 (39.50%) and Diptera 692 (30.27%) were more prevalent. The remaining 30.23% were members of orders Hymenoptera 252 (11.02%), Dictyoptera 115 (5.03%), Orthoptera 85 (3.72%), Isoptera 69 (3.02%), Dermaptera 59 (2.58%), Hemiptera 43 (1.88%), Collembola 41(1.79%) and Siphunculata 27 (1.18%). The result of this study also showed that the number of insects found
in banana and plantain pseudo stems in plots near homes 1085 (47.46%) did not significantly differ from those found in plots far from living homes 1,201 (52.54%) [P (Z>1.78) = 0.0375]. This suggests that site of crop plot has no obvious impact on the abundance of insect invaders of banana and
plantain pseudo stems. Insects of medical/veterinary importance to man (Diptera, Siphunculata and Dictyotera) were found to be significantly more abundant in crop plots nearer homes [P (Z>2.00) = 0.0228]. This significant observation could implicate the health of man and his domestic animals.

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