A review of predator diversity on cocoa-mirid bug (Helopeltis spp.) and some potential weeds as the refugia Anggia Azizah (a), Irfan Mustafa (a), Zulfaidah Penata Gama (a), Amin Setyo Leksono (a*)
a) Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Brawijaya
amin28[at]ub.ac.id
Jalan Veteran, Malang, 65145, Indonesia
Abstract
Helopeltis spp. is one of the most detrimental pests on cocoa. One of method to reduce the population of Helopeltis spp. is by increasing the diversity and abundance of natural enemy. Refugia technique becomes a potential way to enrich the diversity and abundance of predator. This review discusses the research on diversity of predatory insects and some plants that have the potential to become refugia. Some species from Formicidae family like black ants (Delichoderus thoracicus), red ants (Oecphylla smaragdina), also some spiders from Araneidae such as Araneus diadematus, Leucauge decorate, Pardosa sp. are commonly mentioned as domination. Some weeds are visited by those predatory insects such as Ageratum conyzoides, Lantana camara, Synedrella rhombifolia, and Lindernia crustacea in ricefield, park and corn plantations. Further research on the potential of the plants in this review need to be developed in cocoa plantation scale.
