Quantification of Ecological Indices: Insect Diversity Indices, Richness and Relative Abundance in Paddy Crop, Central Telangana, India

Abstract

Rice agroecosystems provide habitat for diverse arthropod groups, including insect pests and their natural enemies. This study quantified arthropod diversity, richness, evenness and relative abundance in irrigated paddy fields under agroecosystem and paddy–teak agroforest conditions at Kowdipally, Medak district, central Telangana, during Kharif 2024. Arthropods were sampled using visual counts, sweep netting, pheromone traps, pitfall traps and yellow sticky traps. Community structure was assessed using the Shannon-Wiener diversity index, Simpson diversity index, Pielou’s evenness index, Margalef richness index and relative abundance. A total of 3,618 individuals were recorded, comprising 1,712 individuals in the agroecosystem and 1,906 in the agroforest ecosystem. At the ecosystem level, the agroforest system showed slightly higher Shannon diversity (H = 3.328), Simpson diversity (1-D = 0.955) and Pielou’s evenness (e = 0.775) than the agroecosystem (H = 3.281; 1-D = 0.948; e = 0.739). In contrast, Margalef richness was slightly higher in the agroecosystem (R = 4.701) than in the agroforest ecosystem (R = 4.634). Relative abundance was 52.68% in the agroforest ecosystem and 47.32% in the agroecosystem. Order-level responses varied between systems. Overall, the findings provide descriptive baseline information on arthropod community structure in the two paddy ecosystems and indicate modest differences in diversity, evenness, richness and relative abundance that should be interpreted within the spatial and seasonal scope of the study.