Insect communities of palm oil plantation after replanting in West Sumatra Province, Indonesia

Abstract

Identification Oil palm crops begin producing at three years and will decrease in pro-duction after reaching the age of over 25 years. It must be replanted to improve productivity. In addition, oil palm plantations are inseparable from the presence of in-sects. Insect community structure can be determined based on the role of insects in food webs, such as herbivores, predators, pollinators, and decomposers. This study aimed to determine the insect community in post-replanted oil palm plantations in Dharmasraya District. The research was conducted on post-replanted oil palm plantations. The loca-tion was by purposive sampling method with the criteria of land area of 1 Ha, plant age of 2 years, and the Dumpy variety. Sampling was carried out three times with an in-terval of once a month. The collected insects were identified at the morphospecies level. The number of insects found was 1.014 individuals, consisting of 7 orders, 31 families, and 38 morphospecies. Predatory insects consist of 3 orders, six families, and eight morphospecies; herbivorous insects consist of 5 orders, 23 families, and 28 morphos-pecies; pollinator insects consist of 1 order, two families, and two morphospecies; and decomposer insects consist of 1 order, one family and one morphospecies. There were similarities in the community structure of insects in post-replanted oil palm ecosystems in Dharmasraya District.