Abundance of pests of flood recession maize (Zea mays L.) in the Senegal River Valley

Abstract

Maize, a foodstuff of economic and nutritional importance, is grown in Senegal in four regions such as the Senegal River valley, especially in the cold season. However, maize is subject to many pests. In view of the damage they cause, a knowledge of the entomofauna remains interesting. The abundance of the entomofauna of floodplain maize in the river valley, particularly in Dembancané, was determined. Thus, a population of 590 individuals was collected. Consequently, the absolute and relative abundance and frequency of occurrence or Constance were evaluated. The Kruskall-wallis test was performed followed by the DUNN test. Following this a Fisher test and a Chi-2 test were performed. From the beginning of flowering to the beginning of ripening, the study covered 58 species of insects and 5 species of spiders belonging to eight orders. The absolute abundance of species varies according to the plot and the development phase. In addition, Heteroptera are the most represented with 35.46% followed by Coleoptera and Orthoptera with 26.24%. The contribution of each species in this study area differs as a result of the different values found of relative abundance and Constance.