Taxa-dependent response of flower-visiting insects to local and landscape disturbance in tropical grassland habitats in Ile-Ife, Nigeria
Eluyeba Olumayowa and Kehinde Temitope
This study examined the effect of local and landscape scale disturbances on different flower-visiting insect taxa in grassland habitats in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Four replicates of disturbed and less disturbed grassland habitat were sampled. Flower-visiting insects were sampled with coloured pan traps and observation along transects. A total of 969 flower-visiting insects belonging to five taxa (true flies, butterflies, bees, wasps and beetles) were collected. True flies had the highest percentage composition and abundance followed by butterflies and bees. The landscape variable had a significant effect on the mean abundance of flower-visiting insects, abundance of bees, true flies and wasps. Only the mean abundance of true flies was significantly higher in less disturbed than disturbed grassland. This indicates that the insect taxa respond differently to disturbances at local and landscape scale. This underscores the need to pay attention to ecological sensitivity of the different taxa in conservation planning.
Eluyeba Olumayowa, Kehinde Temitope. Taxa-dependent response of flower-visiting insects to local and landscape disturbance in tropical grassland habitats in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. J Entomol Zool Stud 2017;5(6):2638-2643.