Entomofauna of Kane Wildlife Sanctuary, Arunachal Pradesh, northeastern India

 

O. Tarunkumar Singh 1, J. Chakravorty 2 & R. Varatharajan 3

 

1 Centre of Biodiversity, 2 Departments of Zoology, Rajiv Gandhi University, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh 791112, India

3 Life Sciences Department, Manipur University, Imphal, Manipur 795003, India

Email: 1 oinamba2010@rediffmail.com

 

 

 

Date of publication (online): 26 December 2010

Date of publication (print): 26 December 2010

ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print)

 

Editor: Kailash Chandra

 

Manuscript details:

Ms # o1946

Received 15 February 2008

Final received 02 November 2010

Finally accepted 18 November 2010

 

Citation: Singh, O.T., J. Chakravorty & R. Varatharajan (2010). Entomofauna of Kane Wildlife Sanctuary, Arunachal Pradesh, northeastern India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 2(13): 1392-1400.

 

Copyright: © O. Tarunkumar Singh, J. Chakravorty & R. Varatharajan 2010. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non-profit purposes, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication.

 

Acknowledgements: The authors are thankful to Department of Zoology and Centre of Biodiversity, Rajiv Gandhi University, Itanagar, for the facilities.  The first author is thankful to the University Grants Commission, New Delhi for the financial support through Dr. D.S. Kothari Post Doctoral Fellowship. Thanks are also due to Mr. M.B. Lal, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Government of Arunachal Pradesh, for prior permission to carry out the survey. Our appreciations are due to Mr. Tayeng Mize (DFO), Kane Wildlife Sanctuary and subordinate staffs for their tireless help during the survey trips. Thanks are also extended to Director, SFRI (Itanagar) and Dr. G. Srinivasan, Scientists-in-charge ZSI (Itanagar) for providing necessary assistances in insect identification. Our gratefulness are extended to Dr. Ch. Chitrpati Devi, Lecturer, D.M. College, Imphal for determining the identities of Collembolan insects.

 

 

 

For table  -- click here

 

 

 

Studies on the entomofauna of Arunachal Pradesh, northeastern India are referable to the works of Mitra (1976), Tandon & Khera (1978), Lahiri (1979 a,b), Basu & Sengupta (1980), Chatterjee & Saha (1981), Sengupta & Sengupta (1981), Biswas & Biswas (1985), Biswas & Chatterjee (1985), Ghosh (1985), Bhargava (1989, 1996), Pal (1985,1992a,1992b,1992c,1993) and Chakrabarty et al. (1994) in which nearly 600 species of insects belonging to Collembola, Odonata, Orthoptera, Blattaria, Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera and Hemiptera have been reported. Later, Ramakrishna & Alfred (2006) compiled all the reported species from Arunachal Pradesh in the State Fauna series.  Detailed systematic accounts were given in the state faunal series - 13 (part–II) of the Zoological Survey of India (Anonymous 2006b).  It included 645 species of insects under 320 genera and 44 families in which 119 species were new records for the state.  Recently, Singh et al. (2007) recorded 100 species of Coleoptera from various habitats of Arunachal Pradesh, in which 25 species under 20 genera were new to the state.  As the state is one of the global biodiversity hot spots (Myer et al. 2000) and is endowed with rich flora and fauna (Das 2006), intensive studies are needed at the earliest to document all of the insects.

 Kane Wildlife Sanctuary is located in the West Siang District of Arunachal Pradesh between 27035’-27045’N &  94035’-94045’E.  Spread over an area of 55km2, it is bounded by the Siri River on the north and northwest.  Along Likabali Road (15km) on the east, Nilakh Nallah (hill stream) on the south and Bardam Modi (hill range) on the south west (Anonymous 2007).  The area falls in the Eastern Himalayan bio-geographical zone with montane evergreen tropical and subtropical forest vegetation (Singh et al. 2002).  The Sanctuary is unique in having a wide range of surface elevation (200-2000 m), varied temperature fluctuations (5-38 0C) at different altitudinal levels with relatively high humidity and excessive rainfall (> 3000 mm/year).  The area has been declared protected as a sanctuary under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 for the conservation of elephants, small cats and deer along with their associated flora and fauna since 1992.  However, little has been known about its flora and fauna till today.  Therefore, the present study was taken up as an initiative to identify and document its faunal resources, particularly insects.  The study assumes significance with reference to the conservation of entomofauna of the region.

Materials and Methods: Insect samples have been collected and preserved for study following Ghosh & Sengupta (1982).  In the case of collembolans and litter thrips, the fallen leaves, soil and humus from all possible habitats were collected at random in polythene bags. The samples were subjected to the process of extraction by using modified Tullgren funnel extractors and collected specimens were preserved in 70% alcohol (Ananthakrishnan 1984). Collections were made for a period of one year (2007) with frequent trips during January to April and August to November.  Collections were made within 200-1500 m altitudinal range covering nearly 15km2 deep inside the eastern portion of the sanctuary on the Likabali side starting from Kane Village.  Collected specimens were sorted out to species level and identified using valid key characters and by comparison with the materials available in the Insect Diversity Unit (RGU), Manipur University, ZSI and SFRI (Itanagar).  Taxonomic publications including Anonymous (1999, 2003, 2006b), Borowiec (2001), Ghate et al. (2003), Subramanian (2005),  Mitra (2006) have been referred to for the correct determination of the identities of the insects.  Distributions of the identified species within Arunachal Pradesh were compiled based on Sen et al. (1988), Chakravorty et al. (1994), and Anonymous (2006 a,b).

Results and Discussion: During the one year preliminary survey, 170 species of insects under nine orders were identified and are listed along with their distributions in Table 1.  This included 70 species of Coleoptera (beetles), 23 species each of Odonata (dragonflies) and Thysanoptera (thrips), 18 species of Orthoptera (grasshoppers), 13 species of Hymenoptera (bees), eight species of Collembola (springtails), seven species of Diptera (flies), five species of Hemiptera (bugs) and two species of Dictyoptera (mantis).  Of these 39 species are new records for the state.

Coleopteran fauna were dominant in the present collection.  Beetles being the largest among the insect orders are associated with various habitats in the forest ecosystem.  The majority of them are phytophagous and scavengers inhabiting various plants, debris and animal excreta. Phytophagous beetles play an important role in checking the populations of many other insects including harmful insects such as aphids, coccids, aleuryds, plantmites and other foliage feeders.  Scavengers, being associated with debris and animal excreta act as detritivores, thereby helping in breaking down plant and animal remains that contribute to the recycling of nutrients and the cleaning of the environment.

The present collection reveals the occurrence of 23 species of Thysanoptera (Thrips).  Among them three species viz., Elaphrothrips spiniceps, Nesothrips lativentris and Xylaplothrips debilis are mycophagous forms feeding on fungal mycelia.  Of the phytophagous forms Gigantothrips elegans, Liothrips ananthakrishnani and Liothrips sp. are found to cause structural abnormalities in their respective host plants.  The first one causes damage to the ficus leaf and the latter two are found to form leaf rolling galls of Acanthus sp. and Pozoulzia zeylanica respectively.  Again two terebrantian species, Panchaetothrips indicus and Sciothrips cardamomi, which were collected from wild herbs during the survey.

The Orthopteran collection contained 18 species belonging to six families.  Among them 11 species were under the family Acrididae, two species each under Tettigoniidae, Schizodactylidae and Gryllidae, respectively.  The family Pyrgomorphidae was represented by a single species Tagasta indica.  The two species of Schizodactylidae, Schizodactylus monstrosus and S. tuberculatus were frequently encountered within sandy burrows near the hillsteams and moist foothills.

Collembolan fauna included eight species under two families, Entomobryidae and Hypogastruridae.  By virtue of their association with litter and soil, these tiny apterous insects are known for their role in recycling the forest nutrients.  Dipteran and Hemiptera were represented by seven and five species respectively.  In addition to the above collections, different species of butterflies, moths and a halfdozen Cicadas were also collected during the study.  The identities of these insects are yet to be determined.

Conclusion: Being a short term preliminary study coupled with mountainous moist habitats of the sanctuary, only limited areas could be covered during the survey. However, the above observations indicate that Kane Wildlife Sanctuary is a rich spot for entomological fauna. It also suggests that a long term survey covering maximum habitats over different seasons would be required at the earliest to explore and document the entomological wealth of the protected area.

 

 

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