Insect diversity associated with quinoa ( Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) in three altitudinal production zones of Peru
- PDF / 1,925,356 Bytes
- 14 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 54 Downloads / 209 Views
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Insect diversity associated with quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) in three altitudinal production zones of Peru Luis Cruces 1,2
&
Eduardo de la Peña 3 & Patrick De Clercq 2
Received: 3 December 2019 / Accepted: 23 April 2020 # African Association of Insect Scientists 2020
Abstract Quinoa is an Andean grain that is increasingly gaining international attention. In recent years, the crop has also emerged in Peruvian regions at lower altitudes (including the Coast). This study investigated the insect diversity associated with quinoa by collecting insects with pitfall traps throughout the crop phenology in three altitudinal zones of Peru: San Lorenzo, in the traditional production region, Junín; and Majes and La Molina in the non-traditional regions Arequipa and Lima, respectively. Our data revealed that the alpha diversity (in terms of species evenness and species richness) was highest in the Andean zone, San Lorenzo, and lowest in Majes. As to the functional groups (herbivores and natural enemies), no differences between field sites in species evenness were found but San Lorenzo was significantly superior to the other zones in species richness of both functional guilds. The analysis of beta diversity revealed large differences among field sites in terms of entomofauna composition, with few species in common; the key pest of quinoa in South America, Eurysacca melanocampta, was found at the three localities. The results of this study can contribute to a more sustainable pest management system taking into account insect-mediated ecosystem services like biological control. Keywords Quinoa . Andes . Peru . Entomofauna . Insect diversity . Eurysacca melanocampta
Introduction Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is cultivated in the Andean region of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru since ancestral times (Saravia et al. 2014; Gómez and Aguilar 2016). The increasing popularity and market value of this crop have motivated more farmers to grow quinoa in several South American countries which has led to a
* Luis Cruces [email protected] Eduardo de la Peña [email protected] Patrick De Clercq [email protected] 1
Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agronomy, Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Lima, Peru
2
Department of Plants & Crops, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, St. Pietersnieuwstraat 33, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
3
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Ghent University, St. Pietersnieuwstraat 33, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
considerably evolution of the planted area (Cruces et al. 2016). Moreover, different countries worldwide are increasingly interested in growing this grain (Bazile et al. 2014). In Peru quinoa is traditionally cultivated in the highlands, in the departments of Apurimac, Ayacucho, Cusco, Huancavelica, Junín and Puno which cover about 90% of the planted area of this crop (Albújar 2017). In the last decade, new quinoa production zones have emerged at lower altitudes such as the Arequipa region at 1410 m above sea level (
Data Loading...
