author(s)
Sanchit S Mandape and Abhishek Shukla

abstract
The present study was conducted during 2014–15 and 2015-16 with the objective to explore the fauna of phytoseiid mites from different agri-horticultural crops, ornamentals, weeds, wild vegetation and leaf litter at Navsari, South Gujarat, India. Overall 357 specimens of phytoseiid mites were collected from different agro-ecosystems. From these specimens, 37 known species belonging to 3 subfamilies were identified. Out of all 37 species proportion of Amblyseius longispinosus (Evans) specimens was the highest (18.8%) followed by Amblyseius alstoniae Gupta (14.8%) and Amblyseius finlandicus (Oudemans) (13.2%). Among different agro-ecosystems, fruit crops supported maximum numbers of species (22 species) as compared to field crops (11 species), vegetable crops (9 species), ornamental crops (9 species), narrow and broad leaf weeds (8 species) while, no phytoseiid species were recorded on wild vegetations and in leaf litter. Total 11 species were recorded from field crops, 9 species from vegetable crops, 22 species from fruit crops, 3 species from weeds and 6 species from ornamentals. Maximum numbers of species were recorded during February-March and May-June months during the survey period. The value of Shannon index of diversity for phytoseiid mites at Navsari Agricultural University campus was 0.3657 and value of Simpson’s index was 0.0879, evenness of phytoseiid mite species was 0.3074 while species richness is 37.