author(s)
J Kaur

abstract
The diversity of soil arthropod fauna from sugarcane fields from four districts of Punjab viz., Gurdaspur, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (SBS) Nagar, Patiala and Fazilka was studied during the year 2016 and 2017. A total of five orders of soil arthropods were extracted. At one inch sampling depth, the locations in decreasing order of abundance were SBS Nagar (35 %) > Fazilka (24 %) > Patiala (21 %) > Gurdaspur (20 %). At three inch sampling depth, locations in decreasing order of abundance were SBS Nagar (32 %) > Patiala (21 %), Gurdaspur (23 %) > Fazilka (22 %). Among the soil arthropods, Coleoptera had highest numerical abundance followed by Acarina, Collembola, Hymenoptera and Diptera at one inch sampling depth. However, at three inch sampling depth, order Hymenoptera had highest numerical abundance followed by Acarina, Coleoptera, Diptera and Collembola. Overall diversity index showed that at one inch depth, diversity of soil arthropods was maximum at SBS Nagar (0.67) while minimum diversity was recorded at Patiala (0.64). At three inch depth, maximum soil arthropod diversity was observed at Gurdaspur (0.62) while minimum diversity was observed at SBS Nagar (0.57).