A preliminary checklist of odonates in Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) campus, Thrissur District, Kerala, southern India

 

C.K. Adarsh1, K.S. Aneesh 2 & P.O. Nameer 3

 

1, 3 Centre for Wildlife Sciences, College of Forestry, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur, Kerala 680656, India

2 Department of Forestry and Wood Technology, Sir Syed College, Taliparamba, Kannur, Kerala 670142, India

1 adarshckcof09@gmail.com, 2aneeshkscof@gmail.com, 3 nameer.po@kau.in (corresponding author)

 

 

 

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3491.6127-37   |  ZooBank:urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:07F4F866-20B6-406B-80AB-97D4767221D2

 

Editor: K.A. Subramanian, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, India.        Date of publication:26 July 2014 (online & print)

 

Manuscript details: Ms # o3491 | Received 17 January 2013 | Final received 08 June 2014 | Finally accepted 18 June 2014

 

Citation: Adarsh, C.K., K.S. Aneesh & P.O. Nameer (2014). A preliminary checklist of odonatesin Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) campus, ThrissurDistrict, Kerala, southern India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 6(8): 6127–6137; http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3491.6127-37

 

Copyright: © Adarsh et al. 2014. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTTallows unrestricted use of this article in any medium, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication.

 

Funding: Kerala Agricultural University.

 

Competing Interest: The authors declare no competing interests.

 

Acknowledgements: We thank C.G. Kiran and David Raju, who confirmed the identification of odonates. We thank Sreehari R, for helping us in the preparation of the map. The authors thank the three anonymous reviewers and the subject editor for their critical comments which greatly improved the manuscript. We also thank the Dean, College of Forestry, KeralaAgricultural University for encouragement and support.

 

 

 

For figures, images, tables -- click here

 

 

The order Odonata, which comprise of dragonflies and damselflies are one of the fascinating groups of insects. Because of their amphibious life history, relatively short generation time, high trophic position, and diversity, odonatesare considered as an important component of freshwater ecosystems as well as good indicators of ecosystem health (Corbet 1993; Clark & Samways 1996).  There are numerous studies from the world, which have documented that odonates respond to anthropogenic activity and thus may serve as useful indicators of habitat quality in terms of species occurrence and distribution (Kadoyaet al. 2004; Flenner & Sahlen2008).  Globally 5,952 species of odonates have been reported, of which 474 species in 142 genera and 18 families are known from India (Subramanian 2014).  Western Ghats has 174 species of odonates (Subramanian et al. 2011), while 154 species of odonates have been reported from Kerala (Kiran & Raju 2011, 2013).  Fraser in his three volume treatises (1933, 1934 & 1936) on the odonates of the Indian subcontinent gave a detailed account of the odonatesof Kerala also.  The odonate fauna of Kerala is well documented, some of the prominent works include Peters (1981), Rao & Lahiri (1982), Prasad (1987), Mathavan& Miller (1989), Radhakrishnan (1997), Emiliyamma & Radhakrishnan(2000, 2002), Palot et al. (2002), Subramanian & Sivaramakrishnan (2002), Radhakrishnan& Emiliyamma (2003), Emiliyammaet al. (2005), Subramanian (2005, 2007), Kiran & Raju (2011, 2013) which provided information regarding the status and distribution of odonates in different parts of Kerala.

Study area: The Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) main campus is located at Vellanikkara, Thrissur District, Kerala (Fig. 1).  The area lies between 10032’–10033’N and 76016’–76017’E, with an average altitude of 50m.  KAU campus is located very close to the Peechi-Vazhani Wildlife Sanctuary, Western Ghats, the aerial distance of which is not more than 5km.  The campus has a total area of 391.44ha and the major habitats include garden lands, botanical garden, plantations of rubber, coconut, plantain, cocoa and orchards of mango, jack, sapota and guava.  The campus is also enriched with various aquatic habitats like ponds, marshes, paddy fields, tanks etc. (Appendix 1).  KAU campus enjoys a moderate climate.  The last 10 year mean minimum temperature is 23.30C and 10 year mean maximum of 31.80C. The area receives south‑west and north‑east monsoons, the greater portion of the rainfall, however is received from the south-west monsoon between June and September.  The mean annual rainfall is 2,763mm.  The mean number of rainy days per year is 110 days (KAU weather station 2012).

Methods:The odonates of the Kerala Agricultural University campus were studied for one year from February 2011 to March 2012.  Surveys were conducted throughout the campus to cover all the habitats.  Observations were done over three seasons viz., summer (March to May), monsoon (June to October) and winter (November to February). Individual specimens were photo-documented and these images were cross-checked with standard references and field guides on odonates such as Fraser (1933, 1934 & 1936), Subramanian (2005, 2009) and Kiran &Raju (2013). Systematic arrangement and the taxonomy followed in the checklist is after Subramanian (2014) and common names after Subramanian (2009).  The odonate species were categorized into the five relative abundance categories such as very common (VC), those which were sighted during 80-100 % of the field days, common (C) (60–79 %), occasional (O), (40–59 %) and rare (R), (20–39 %) and very rare (VR) for those that was sighted only less than 19% of the field days.

Results:A total of 52 species of odonataincluding 36 species of Anisoptera (dragonflies) and 16 species of Zygoptera (damselflies) were recorded from the Kerala Agricultural University main campus, Thrissur, Kerala (Table 1).  The Libellulidae (29sp.) was the dominant family among Anisoptera followed by Aeshnidae(3sp.) and Gomphidae (3sp.).  Among the Zygopterathe dominant family was Coenagrionidae (8sp.) followed by Calopterygidae (2sp.), Lestidae (2sp.) and Platycnemididae(2sp.).  The family wise distribution of odonates is given in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3.

The relative abundance analysis shown that 21 species out of 52 were found to be occasional, 13 were common, 10 very common, seven rare and one very rare.  Among Anisoptera, Green Marsh Hawk Orthetrum sabina(Drury, 1770) and Common Picture Wing Rhyothemis variegata (Linnaeus, 1763) were the most common species, whereas among the Zygoptera, Yellow Bush Dart Copera marginipes (Rambur, 1842) were the common ones.  The odonatediversity did not vary much between the different seasons at KAU campus during the study period (Fig. 4).

Discussion:Kiran& Raju (2011) reported 154 species of odonates from Kerala. The present study on the odonates of KAU main campus revealed the presence of 52 species, which accounts 33.76% of total species of odonates found in Kerala.  The two dominant families of odonates at KAU campus are Libellulidae, accounting for 29 species and Coenagrionidae with eight species.  Earlier studies on the Kerala odonates from other regions also have reported Libellulidae as the dominant odonate family (Emiliyamma & Radhakrishnan 2000, 2002; Emiliyamma2005; Emiliyamma et al. 2005).  The higher species diversity of odonates in KAU campus may be attributed to the diverse ecosystems including agriculture fields and the water bodies present in the campus.  Sharma et al. (2007) reported that species diversity of odonates would be higher in a diversified ecosystem. This study also reported two Near Threatened species such as Heliogomphus promelas(Selys, 1873) and Indothemis carnatica (Fabricius, 1798).  The present study reiterates the significance of KAU main campus in conserving the biodiversity of the region.  Earlier studies on the fauna of KAU main campus have reported 135 species of birds (Nameer et al. 2000) and 139 species of butterflies (Aneesh et al. 2013). This is quite significant and thus emphasizing importance of university campuses in biodiversity conservation.

 

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