A Study of Species Diversity and Distribution of Soil Macroarthropod Fauna in Irrigated Vegetable Plots in Jos South Local Government Area, Plateau State, Nigeria.

Abstract

A study on the species diversity and distribution of soil macroarthropod fauna in irrigated vegetable plots in Jos was carried out. Five sampling sites were selected based on the mass cultivation of four staple food crops: cabbage, maize, potatoes and carrots. A total of 981 soil macroarthropod were collected. Out of which 539(54.94%) were collected by pitfall traps and 442 (45.60%) were collected by hand capture technique 953 (97.12%) were adults while 28(2.85%) were juveniles. 11 orders and 19 families were identified. Unidentified families were termed, “others”. The Hymenoptera (37.3%), Coleoptera (24.5%) and Diplopoda (8.8%) were the dominant macroarthropod group, but the least dominant groups are Hemiptera (1.0%) and Chilopoda (2.0%). There was no significant difference (P>0.05) between macroarthropod collected by pitfall trap and those collected by hand capture technique. A significant difference (P<0.05) was observed between the juvenile and adult populations collected. Factors such as pH, soil temperature, fertilizer application, crop type, control methods influence the abundance and distribution of soil macroarthropod fauna. Data across sites showed that maize had highest abundance of 408 macroarthropod at 26.5OC while there was decline in cabbage with 183 at 27OC. However, a decrease to 187 at 26.7OC for carrot and increase to 203 macroarthropod at soil temperature of 27.8OC for potatoes was noted.