Identification and species diversity of seed feeding insects of rangelands Legumes (Fabaceae) in the North Khorasan province

This study was intended to identify seed feeding insects and to investigate their biodiversity on Fabaceae rangeland plants in North Khorasan during 2015-2016. Therefore, sampling was carried out with collecting legum seeds as weekly from April to September each year and biodiversity indices were calculated using SDR software. In this study, 25 seed feeding insects were identified that belonged to the Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera and Heteroptera orders. Among 4421 seed feeding insects, the highest numbers belonged to Astragalus suluklensis Frey& Sint with 593 specimens (10 species), A. macropelantus Boiss with 303 (7 species) and A. iranicus Bung with 513 (4 Species), respectively. Species of Bruchophagus mutabilis Nikolskaya, 1952; B. astragalus Fedoseev, 1954; and Bruchidius virgatus Fahraeus, 1839; were the most abundant among seed feeding insects with relative abundance od 35.35, 9.58 and 7.05 percent, respectively. The diversity index indicated that Sissab area and Sargil protected park, had the highest diversity among diverse species and Jajarm and Golestan National Park were the least diverse species. On the other hand, the altitudes of 1200 to 1800 meters had more diversity than other elevations. Among the seed feeding insects, B. mutabilis and B. astragali, with 80% damage, B. dahuricus Zerova with 45% damage, Bruchidus virgatus, Fahraeus, B. lukjanovistsci B. lukjanovistsci (Ter-Minassian, 1969) and B. astragali (Boheman, 1829) with up to 60% of damage and Etiella zinckenella Treitschke with up to 90% damage have been identified as the most destructive insect pests.