Abid Showkat’s research while affiliated with Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir and other places

Insects are the dominant group of animals on earth today. They occur practically everywhere and far outnumber all other terrestrial animals taken together. They create the biological foundation for all terrestrial ecosystems. They cycle nutrients, pollinate plants, disperse seeds, maintain soil structure and fertility, control populations of other organisms, provides food besides having great utility in the field of medicine and forensics. Forensic entomology is a science, which applies knowledge of insects (and other arthropods) to civil proceedings and criminal trials. The applications of Forensic Entomology are numerous, encompassing any situation that may involve an interaction between insects and other arthropods, and the law. Therefore, the utility of the field includes in the areas like; urban, stored product and medico legal. The principle underlying this science is to establish the time of death, known as postmortem interval (PMI) by knowing the life cycle of insect species and evaluating the insect succession waves present on the corpse at any given time viz a viz movement of the corpse, manner and cause of death and association of suspects at the death scene. The Forensic Entomology in India is in its infancy state and few workers are doing their research in this field. Despite the enormous usefulness, little work is done in our country as our court of justice didn't include use of Forensic Entomology as a legal proceeding under Article 138 of Evidence Act of IPC. Therefore, in this article we will briefly discuss the role of insects in environment with special focus on their application in forensic science in India.

Chemical control of pests is a common practice in agriculture. There are enormous pesticides of both chemical and biological nature used around the globe to minimize crop losses. Agriculture in developing countries suffers most because of high incidence of various pests. In India, estimated annual production losses were in millions. Although chemical pesticides are well known for their effectiveness, their impact on soil and environment, and presence of residue in food products are matters of concern. In addition to this there exists poor appropriate and alternative framework to the use of pesticides besides having full-fledged pesticide legislation. It is important to understand the crucial issues like what are the agriculture crop production issues of using pesticides, and alternative frameworks that could help to solve the problem? Lastly, there are certain gaps in data on pesticide production and use, structure of pesticide industry, regulations for registration, quality assessment, efficient spraying applicators and adverse impacts on the insect pollinator communities. Regarding declining of insect pollinators, a case study will be discussed in this article; however the detailed literature on the ecosystem and health dimensions of pesticide use in Indian agriculture is found to be scarce.

The present study was carried out in three experimental sites of Kashmir valley during 2013 to 2014. The nesting behaviors and habitat of all insect species pollinating fruit crops were investigated. Highest of 46 species were observed, belonging to 5 orders, 20 families and 31 genera of class Insecta. Total of 17 species were categorized in different landscapes of Himalayan areas as endogeic, 6 hypergeic and 23 were found to wander over grasses, herbs and dead material. Habitat components determining the structure of bee communities in surroundings of the foraging resources. For the organization of the bee communities study clearly demonstrate that a variety of nesting substrates and nest building materials played a key role. Generally, the potential bare grounds and nesting cavities are two factors influencing the entire bee community. The compositions of nest guilds at any potential areas also have a relative abundance of a dominant species. The important areas representing the huge density of nesting sites are necessarily the steep and sloping grounds, pithy stems, cracks and crevices, snail shells, beetle holes and pre-existing burrows. Nesting site varies across habitat and is clear determinant of bee community and forage resource availability and diversity. Principle component analysis (PCA) was done to determine the habitat requirements and Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test determined the nest density between the pollinators of different nesting habitat behaviours in three experimental locations and the difference were found statistically significant.

Plum (Prunus domestica) is self-unfruitful, requires cross-pollination by insects to produce fruit. The demand for plum exceeds the supply due to low product yields that have resulted from a decrease in pollination services. Although plum is grown in Kashmir valley, but little is known about the correspondence between pollinator abundance and pollinator services for this plant genus. In this study, daily activity patterns, hourly abundance, ranks abundance and pollination effectiveness of insects visiting Prunus domestica were investigated. Highest of 41 species, belonging to 5 orders, 19 families and 28 genera visiting insects were identified to interact with plum flowers. Conducting χ 2-test, the order Hymenoptera (Mann-Whitney U test), family Halictidae and genus Lasioglossum were found dominant among all pollinators observed. Refraction curve were made and species wise sample count were plotted. Introduction Insect pollinators interact with flowering plants to underpin wider biodiversity, ecosystem function and resource conservation services to agricultural crops (Dar et al. 2017a) [17] and ultimately contributes to human nutrition. The non-availability of continuous floral resources, anthropogenic factors (Dar et al. 2017b) [18] , diseases (Ullah et al. 2020) [36] and nest sites are two factors that are thought to limit bee populations in farmland. For sufficient pollination of the flowering plants, the habitat requirement (Dar et al. 2017c) [16] and the conservation of insect pollinators is most essential for overall diversity (Dar et al. 2016a) [19] and ecosystem sustainability (Dar et al. 2017d) [21]. Therefore, insect mediated pollination is only the suitable option for pollination in plum fruit crops in general. In New Zealand field trials were conducted and it was recorded that honey bees are important pollinators of Japanese plums (Hopping and Jerram, 1980) [23]. Langridge and Goodman (1985) [25] examined the pollination diversity of Japanese plums (Prunus salicina Lindl. cv. Satsuma) in orchards of Victoria, and honey bees were main pollinators and comprised of 88.5 per cent of all flower visitors. Whileas, Trigona species were not seen to visit the plum flowers. Further, Langridge and Goodman (1985) [25] also reported that pollen-collecting bees seem to be the main pollinators of plum species because of their activity early in the flowering period. The honey bee has been recognized as a primary pollinating agent of plums and other Prunus species (Waugh, 1900) [38] and importance of bees as pollinators of plums were stressed. Serini (1985) [34] summarized the observations on the species composition of the pollinating insect of Plum (Prunus species) in different localities in Italy. Wild and domesticated bees predominated; while as, Syrphids, Calliphorids, Nymphalids, Sphingids and Pierids were present in small numbers, especially if the orchards were surrounded by uncultivated areas having wild flowering plants (Dar et al. 2018b) [20]. Correia et al. (1991) [9] surveyed the abundance, diversity and seasonality of wild bees in Portuguese on plum, and showed that wild bees were very promising fruit pollinators accounted about 3, 2 and 3 species of Bumble bees (Bombus), leaf-cutter bees (Megachilidae)

The gypsy moth, Lymantria spp. (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae), is one of the distinguished pest species feeding on forest trees and the caterpillars prefer oaks, birches, poplars and willows, causing huge defoliation, growth loss and tree mortality. Softwoods like hemlocks and pines are more likely to die after a single defoliation than hardwoods. A number of parasitoids have been released for classical biological control of the destructive this forest insect gypsy moth, however the pathogens especially Entomophaga maimaiga and the nucleo-polyhedrovirus have been found to give promising results. The parasitoids attacking on larval or pupal stages of gypsy moth have also been observed and evaluated by researchers. The infections due to Entomophaga maimaiga and LdMNPV can occur in all larval stages but are usually most profound in late instars. In Ladakh region a number of predators and parasitoids have been observed to feed on this pest. Generally, in Ladakh region infestation is huge and once enormous numbers of tiny caterpillars are present, a few become so entangled in their own webbing that they are unable to escape out of the web network and this results in their mortality in a natural way. During the whole infestation season (active larval season) almost 10-40 per cent population die because of this undesirable complexity in and around silken webs that had a considerable control over population build up.

The pollination services provided by wild insect fauna in peach depends on many factors, among them the diverse landscapes and habitat diversity is of immense importance contributing to foraging characteristics and hourly visitation frequencies. A considerable variation existed in visitation rate; total visits, percent visitation and total time spend on peach flowers by insect pollinators/visitors during our course of study in low maintained mountainous landscapes. Flower handling times consumed by species created a significant variation between total visitation and visitation rate. Most species prefer to collect pollen however the nectar is main reward from flowers, therefore time per flower sought by hymenopteran species were inherently shorter than lepidopteran and dipteran species. Among the members of genus Lasioglossum the total visits, visitation rate and per cent visitation were found highest by species L. marginatum and overall the order hymenoptera showed comparatively higher visitation rate, total visits and per cent visitation on peach flowers. From members of family Apidae species Xylocopa valga and X. violacea makes highest number of total visits followed by family Halictidae. During the two years of studies, almost 95% of the available peach flowers were visited by foraging wild bees varied significantly as per ANOVA; however, the statistical significance across two years of investigation varies too. The time spend by pollinators/visitors on peach flower bout varies among different species. Rank dominance curve (K-dominance curve) were determined with respect to species abundance and inferences were drawn species wise.

Plum (Prunus domestica) is self-unfruitful, requires cross-pollination by insects to produce fruit. The demand for plum exceeds the supply due to low product yields that have resulted from a decrease in pollination services. Although plum is grown in Kashmir valley, but little is known about the correspondence between pollinator abundance and pollinator services for this plant genus. In this study, daily activity patterns, hourly abundance, ranks abundance and pollination effectiveness of insects visiting Prunus domestica were investigated. Highest of 41 species, belonging to 5 orders, 19 families and 28 genera visiting insects were identified to interact with plum flowers. Conducting χ 2-test, the order Hymenoptera (Mann-Whitney U test), family Halictidae and genus Lasioglossum were found dominant among all pollinators observed. Refraction curve were made and species wise sample count were plotted. Introduction Insect pollinators interact with flowering plants to underpin wider biodiversity, ecosystem function and resource conservation services to agricultural crops (Dar et al. 2017a) [17] and ultimately contributes to human nutrition. The non-availability of continuous floral resources, anthropogenic factors (Dar et al. 2017b) [18] , diseases (Ullah et al. 2020) [36] and nest sites are two factors that are thought to limit bee populations in farmland. For sufficient pollination of the flowering plants, the habitat requirement (Dar et al. 2017c) [16] and the conservation of insect pollinators is most essential for overall diversity (Dar et al. 2016a) [19] and ecosystem sustainability (Dar et al. 2017d) [21]. Therefore, insect mediated pollination is only the suitable option for pollination in plum fruit crops in general. In New Zealand field trials were conducted and it was recorded that honey bees are important pollinators of Japanese plums (Hopping and Jerram, 1980) [23]. Langridge and Goodman (1985) [25] examined the pollination diversity of Japanese plums (Prunus salicina Lindl. cv. Satsuma) in orchards of Victoria, and honey bees were main pollinators and comprised of 88.5 per cent of all flower visitors. Whileas, Trigona species were not seen to visit the plum flowers. Further, Langridge and Goodman (1985) [25] also reported that pollen-collecting bees seem to be the main pollinators of plum species because of their activity early in the flowering period. The honey bee has been recognized as a primary pollinating agent of plums and other Prunus species (Waugh, 1900) [38] and importance of bees as pollinators of plums were stressed. Serini (1985) [34] summarized the observations on the species composition of the pollinating insect of Plum (Prunus species) in different localities in Italy. Wild and domesticated bees predominated; while as, Syrphids, Calliphorids, Nymphalids, Sphingids and Pierids were present in small numbers, especially if the orchards were surrounded by uncultivated areas having wild flowering plants (Dar et al. 2018b) [20]. Correia et al. (1991) [9] surveyed the abundance, diversity and seasonality of wild bees in Portuguese on plum, and showed that wild bees were very promising fruit pollinators accounted about 3, 2 and 3 species of Bumble bees (Bombus), leaf-cutter bees (Megachilidae)

The present study was carried out in three experimental sites of Kashmir valley during 2013 to 2014. The nesting behaviors and habitat of all insect species pollinating fruit crops were investigated. Highest of 46 species were observed, belonging to 5 orders, 20 families and 31 genera of class Insecta. Total of 17 species were categorized in different landscapes of Himalayan areas as endogeic, 6 hypergeic and 23 were found to wander over grasses, herbs and dead material. Habitat components determining the structure of bee communities in surroundings of the foraging resources. For the organization of the bee communities study clearly demonstrate that a variety of nesting substrates and nest building materials played a key role. Generally, the potential bare grounds and nesting cavities are two factors influencing the entire bee community. The compositions of nest guilds at any potential areas also have a relative abundance of a dominant species. The important areas representing the huge density of nesting sites are necessarily the steep and sloping grounds, pithy stems, cracks and crevices, snail shells, beetle holes and pre-existing burrows. Nesting site varies across habitat and is clear determinant of bee community and forage resource availability and diversity. Principle component analysis (PCA) was done to determine the habitat requirements and Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test determined the nest density between the pollinators of different nesting habitat behaviours in three experimental locations and the difference were found statistically significant.

A survey was conducted in various districts of the Kashmir valley in India to assess the diversity of thrips species on apple in summer during the year 2016-17. Samples of flower clusters containing thrips were collected from apple, and the thrips identified to species. The results revealed that only one species of thrips, Thrips carthami Shumsher, was associated with apple. Information on the taxonomy and distribution is provided.