Preliminary Study on Differential Abundance and Diversity of Ichneumonids and Braconids in Star Fruit Orchard and Oil Palm Plantations

The preliminary study on differential abundance and diversity of ichneumonids and braconids of star fruit and oil palms was conducted between July and November 1999. The braconids species seemed to be more abundant and diverse than the ichneumonids irrespective of the two agricultural habitats. This indicates a differential habitat preference between these two parasitic wasps. The highly disturbed agricultural habitat had significantly more diverse ichneumonid species than the moderately disturbed one. We have suggested ways to use and materialize these two parasitoid groups for controlling insect pests oil palm and fruit orchard.