A Report On The Invasive Alien Insect Species Of Order Homoptera Of District Rajouri, Jammu And Kashmir

Research Article
Pallavi Shrikhandia and Sanjay Bhatia
DOI: 
http://dx.doi.org/10.24327/ijrsr.2017.0811.1193
Subject: 
science
KeyWords: 
Invasive alien species; Rajouri district; Nativity
Abstract: 

The concept of Biological Diversity is from times immemorial. It constitutes an essential part of our planet. But nowadays it is facing many threats throughout the world and one of the major threats to the native biological diversity is now acknowledged by scientists and governments to be Biological Invasions caused by the Invasive Alien species. These species have profound impacts on the regional economy and ecological integrity of natural communities. Amongst these, invasive alien insects are the most numerous invaders worldwide. The scope of biological invasion by these invasive insects is global and the cost is enormous in both environmental and economic terms. They are thus a serious impediment to conservation and sustainable use of global, regional and local biodiversity with significant undesirable impacts on the goods and the service provided by ecosystems. In view of this, studies were conducted to enumerate the invasive alien insect species in Rajouri District of the Jammu region of J&K. The main objective of the study was to find out their origin, spread, introduction pathway, invasive status and their impact on native species. A total of seven (07) invasive insect species viz., Eriosoma lanigerum (Hausman) (Homoptera: Aphididae), Myzus persicae (Sulzer) (Homoptera: Aphididae), Icerya purchasi Maskell (Homoptera: Margarodidae), Quadraspidiotus perniciosus (Comstock) (Homoptera: Diaspididae), Pterochloroides persicae (Cholodkovsky) (Homoptera: Aphididae), Brachycaudus helichrysi (Kaltenbach) (Homoptera: Aphididae) and Heteropsylla cubana (Crawford) (Homoptera: Psyllidae) were recorded in the survey.