Biodiversity survey of Thrips (Insecta: Thysanoptera) in Yasouj and Sisakht orchards

Biodiversity is an essential component of any natural biological community. To facilitate sustainable agriculture and enhance environmental health, many scientists work to preserve animal and plant species diversity. In this research, thrips biodiversity in Yasouj and Sisakht (Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, Iran) pome and stone fruit orchards was studied. Sampling was performed every two weeks from April through October 2012. Samples were collected by shaking tree branches over a white tray, and then thrips were quickly collected and transferred into vials containing 70% ethanol. Thrips were placed on microscopic slides and identified to species level. To assess thrip biodiversity and evaluation of their evenness of distribution within orchards, the Shannon Wiener and the Pielou indices were used, respectively. According to calculations, biodiversity and evenness indices were 1.599 ± 0.3702 and 0.5339 ± 0.1236, and 0.9256 ± 0.2892 and 0.309 ± 0.09655, in Yasouj and Sisakht orchards, respectively. These results indicated that species diversity and evenness of Thysanoptera in Yasouj orchards are significantly greater than in Sisakht orchards.