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ABSTRACT
This study was conducted to examine the effect of maize and pumpkin intercropping on the diversity and abundance of insect. Insects were identified in the Entomology unit of the Department of Crop Science to family level using morphological keys. The treatment include T1 - Sole Maize, T2 -Sole Pumpkin, T3 - Maize-Pumpkin intercrop (1mx50cm for pumpkin, 1mx25cm for maize) and T4 - Maize-Pumpkin intercrop (1mx1m for pumpkin, 1mx50cm for maize. The experiment was laid out in Randomized complete block design (RCBD) replicated three times with the treatment plot measuring 4x3m. Sampling was done at the early whorl, late whorl, tasseling and silking and maturing stage of the maize plant. Data on insect abundance in the treatments were square-root transformed and analyzed using one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The result showed that Aphidae, which showed abundance of 94.09% of the total population of arthropod pests on the sole maize and Aphidae family was also the abundant and relative abundance of arthropod pest on maize and pumpkin intercrop (1m × 25cm and 1m × 50). The mean abundance of arthropod pests on maize at 12 different growth stages under four different treatments revealed that at the early stage, Treatment 1 (T1) (Sole Maize) had the highest mean abundance of arthropod pests, with a value of 5.00 (2.32), at whorl stage, Treatment 1 (T1) had the highest mean abundance, recording 278 (13.9), at tasselling and silking stage, Treatment 1 (T1) maintained its position with the highest mean abundance of 6.33 (2.58). Treatment 2 (T2) showed the highest Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H) among all treatments, with a value of 1.02 and evenness value of 0.63. The result also indicated that there was significant (p<0.05) differences ear length between T1 and the T3 and T4. The result also indicated that there was significant (p<0.05) differences in Plant weight between T1 and the T3 and T4. This study revealed that Intercropping did not have any significant effect on the abundance of arthropod pests at different growth stages, although numerically sole maize had the highest number of pest at the early, late, tasseling and silking stage. The study also showed that the maize and pumpkin intercrops had a higher diversity of arthropod pests than sole maize. In terms of potential for pest control, intercropping maize with pumpkin had no significant impact.
