The Potential of Flowering Weeds as Refugia for Predatory Insects at Bantimurung-Bulusaraung National Park , South Sulawesi

A study on identication of owering weeds as predatory insect alternative foods was conducted at Bantimurung- Bulusaraung National Park, South Sulawesi, Indonesia in February 2013. Among the plants that naturally grow in the national park area Cassia siamea and Clerodendron paniculatum , which were source of nectar for insects, particularly butteries. Visits of predatory insect to owering weeds and species of both insects and owering weeds were recorded. The preferred owering weeds visited by the predatory insects are C. striata (Papilionaceae), A.conyzoides (Asteraceae) and L. camara (Verbenaceae) followed by S. nodiflora (Asteraceae), S. rhombifolia (Malvaceae) and L. crustacea (Scrophulariaceae). A large number of adults and pupae of Coccinella sp. was found in the Bantimurung-Bulusaraung National Park. Keywords : nectar, pollen, alternative host, weeds, Indonesia


Introduction
Modern agricultural system has reduced the population and activities of predatory insects.The development of strategies to conserve and maximise the abundance of insects is crucial to enhance biological control of agricultural crop pests.Flowering weeds in a naturally diverse habitat the can potentially bene t predatory insects by providing alternative source of pollens and nectar particularly during off-season planting (Hassan, 1998;Nentwig, 1998;Fox and Landis, 2002).Even during the growing seasons vegetable crops are normally ; t grown until harvested before they ower hose owering do not ower so sources of food all year round (nectar, pollen) for insects were not always available.Pollen and nectar from owering weeds play an important role increas longevity, fecundity, and to e survival for predatory insects (Jervis and Kidds, 1996).Flowering weeds also provide a suitable microclimate for the predatory insects (Landis , 2000).et.al.
The predator insects can be seen either with the naked y eye or magnifying to the nectar or glasses feed on pollen Euphorbiae and Umbelliferae s of species.Buckwheat ( , Fagopyrum esculentum Polygonaceae) nectar is normally abundant in the morning and attracted different species of nectar feeders (Lee and Heimpel, 2002).The larvae/ and adult stages of predatory nymph insects especially holometabolous in vary considerably their nutritional requirement and food ecology (Wackers et al., 2007).One of the predatory insects that commonly found in the crop production area is Coccinelids.
adults were rst attracted to Coccinella sp oral color and odor before they feed on the pollen.Pollen can improve the longevity and fecundity of the other predatory insect such as Mirids Macrolophus pygmaeus to control white ies (Vandekerkhove and de Clerqc, 2010).
Increased habitat diversity in crops can increase population densities of locally available predators to enhance biological control of pests Conservation which .involves protection and maintenance of natural enemy population has proved crucial for maintaining native natural enemies in ecosystems .(Sharma et al, 2013) The use of persistent pesticide can kill insects particularly predatory insect that live around the crop production areas.Habitat management for enhancement of predatory insects is an important component to reduce pesticide (Pickett application and Bugg P application methods can be , 1998).esticide modi ed, e.g.pesticides can only be applied when the pest population exceeds speci ed levels (Sharma et al, 2013).
Conservation of natural enemies can also be achieved by changing the active ingredient, rates, formulations, timing, and location of pesticide applications or by maintaining refuges .(Hulls and Beers, 1985) Predatory insects such as Coccinellids are normally found to live on the cultivated crops and on the weeds that produces nectar and pollens.Reduced pesticide application could increase the roles of insect natural enemies to control crop pests (Nentwig, 1998 (Aminah Ngatimin and Syatrawati, 2010;Aminah Ngatimin, Saranga and Junaedi, 2014).Flowering weeds can provide shelters or refugia to support the lives of predatory insects particularly during the extreme environmental condition as well as during non-growing seasons (Landis et al, 2000).
The objectives of research to were identify the species of predatory insect and s that serve the owering weed as alternative source of foods the for predatory insects at Maros Bantimurung-Bulusaraung National Park, District South Sulawesi, Indonesia.,

Material and Methods
A survey was conducted in Bantimurung-Bulusaraung National Park, Maros District South Sulawesi between February

to April
The elevation of the park is about 500 m above the sea level with average precipitation of 1 500-2 100 mm year, maximum and minimum air , , per temperature ranging from 23-32°C, relative humidity ranging 65-88% and soil pH 5 47.
of .
The national park covers the area of 43,750 ha and contains large and steep karst area, a small pond and has more than 250 caves.The area of the National Park covered in the study was approximately 700 .Teak m 2 ( ), bit i ( ) and Johar Tectona grandis Vitex cofassus t ( ) Cassia siamea were planted on some area of the national park.Samples were taken systematically according to the methods developed by Landis et al (2000).The survey was conducted at ten sampling points, i.e. two points near the lake, two points on the grass elds, two points among teak, bitti and other forestry trees, two on the wild bushes, and the rest in the butter y cultivation area.

Predatory Insects Collection
All predatory insects that use owering weeds as food sources and refugia were recorded.observation Visual on the patter of ' to ing n predatory insects visit ower weeds was conducted 8 3 every day from 0 00-1 00 hours in ve consecutive days per month between February to April 2013.
Insects from the ten sampling points were identi ed on site using naked eye or magnifying glass.Small insects such as ants and Coccinellids were collected using tweezers and kept in glass bottles containing 90% alcohol.Pupae were collected along with the leaves or other plant parts and kept in petri dishes using lter paper as bases.All collected insects were brought to Bantimurung-Bulusaurung laboratory for further identi cation using insect identi cation reference by Kalshoven (1981), Kristensen et al. (1991) andHill (1994).All pupae of Coccinelids were returned back to the natural habitat after identi cation.
The diversity of predatory insects was calculated using the Shannon Index Diversity (Langmack , 2001).et al.

Flowering Weeds Collection
The owering weeds visited by predatory that were insects collected and identi ed us Everaarst were ing (1981), Soerjani et al. (1987) and van Steenis (1988) as references.

Flowering Weeds as Predatory Insects Bio-resource for
Plant species that naturally grow in the national park include (Fabaceae), Caesalpinia pulcherrima Clerodendr paniculatum um (Verbenaceae) and Hibiscus rosa-chinensis (Malvaceae).They grow mainly around the limestone hills of the park.
Our study demonstrated that the predatory insects visited owering weeds, particularly those with broad leaves.Different insects s e ha different preferenc to owering weed species, whereas different weed species were visited by insects for different functions, i.e. as refugia, source of nectar and pollen Plant .canopies and root surfaces also function as refugia for pupae of Coccinellids.
, and A. conyzoides C. striata L. camara were visited by the predatory insects for their nectar (Table 1).
Using magnifying glass we observed that Coccinellids visited Asteraceae, Papilionaceae and Verbenaceae owers and fed on their nectar, clearly seen by the feeding movement of their mouth.Using binocular microscope at the laboratory, pollens were found on the mandibles of the Coccinellids.The elongated proboscis of the butter ies from Pieriade and Papilionidae was observed when they visited the weed owers.(Fox and Landis, 2002) presence of preys and honeydew (Bàrberi et , the al., 2010) predatory are amongst the factors that attract insects.Honeydew is an important indicator of aphid presence on the plants.Honeydew is nutritious and can serve as an alternative food for the predatory insect.In hover-y (Syrphidae) for example, predatory insect with short proboscis unable to the nectar of were feed on owers with long corolla (Jervis and Kidd, 1996;Wackers et al , 2007) and Coccinellids prefer a at ., ower base (Nentwig, 1998).loral morphology and F ower base size also affects insect visits (Lundgren, 2009) reduce nectar evaporation, .Long corolla tends to making it more attractive to insect visitors especially predator (Lundgren, 2009) ).