Abstract:
There have been debates whether insects that visit cashew during the
flowering and fruiting periods are the same. The main problem arises as
whether the insects that visit the plant during the flowering are the same that
visit during the fruiting period. Field survey was conducted in ten farms in the
Northern Region from December 2014 to April 2015 to identify and assess
insects taxa on cashew in farms close to natural forest and farms away from
natural forest, during cashew flowering and fruiting periods. Total insect
species enumerated in farms close to the forest during the flowering period
was 6161, with a mean number of 1232.2 (SD = 250.7) and diversity of 3.34.
In farms greater than 5km away from the forest, the total number of insect
species enumerated was 2745, with a mean of 549 (SD = 103.2) and diversity
of 3.56. During the fruiting period, total insect species collected in farms
close to the forest was 4665, with a mean number of 933 (SD = 143.5) and
diversity of 3.13. In farms away from the forest, total insect species
enumerated was 2056, mean 411.2 (SD = 52.1) and diversity 3.14. Insect
diversity was greater during the flowering period in farms close to the forest
than the fruiting period. Also, no significant difference was found between the
diversity of insects on cashew plant in farms close and away from the forest
during both the flowering and the fruiting periods. Most of the species that
occurred during the flowering period were not the same as those that occurred
during the fruiting period though some shared the same family. The result also
shows that insect composition was not influenced by closeness to forest
