Biodiversity of Insects Associated with Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) Crop in Gachsaran, Iran

The present research conducted to see the biodiversity of insects in warm and cool areas from March to April in 2009 at the Gachsaran Agricultural Research Station. A total number of 4000 specimens, which were identified into 24 families and 62 species. In the warm area a total of 2800 specimens with a mean value of 52.702 and in the cool area a total of 1200 specimens with a mean value of 20.702 were collected, which differed significantly from each other. The mean values in the months of March, April and May were 28.395, 37.026 and 44.648 respectively and they did not differ significantly. The maximum mean value of 192.80 specimens was obtained for the family Pyralidae, which had no significant difference with Noctuidae. The minimum mean value of 1.167 was achieved in the family Satyriidae and it was statistically similar to most of other families.

Gachsaran, Insects, diversity, Iran