Long-horned
Beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae)
and Tortoise Beetles (Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae) of Tripura, northeastern India with some new
additions
B.K. Agarwala 1 & Partha Pratim Bhattacharjee2
1,2 Ecology and Biodiversity
Laboratories, Department of Zoology, Tripura University, Suryamaninagar,
Tripura 799022, India
Email: 1 bagarwala00@gmail.com
(corresponding author), 2 bhattacharjee.pp1977@gmail.com
Date
of publication (online): 26 October 2012
Date
of publication (print): 26 October 2012
ISSN
0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print)
Editor:Anonymity
requested
Manuscript
details:
Ms # o2951
Received
19 September 2011
Final
received 18 April 2012
Finally
accepted 25 August 2012
Citation: Agarwala,
B.K. & P.P. Bhattacharjee (2012). Long-horned
Beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae)
and Tortoise Beetles (Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae) of Tripura, northeastern India with some new
additions. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(13): 3223–3227.
Copyright: © B.K. Agarwala & Partha Pratim Bhattacharjee 2012. 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:Authors are thankful to ICAR, New Delhi for financial support through National
Project on Insect Biosystematics and to Dr. V.V. Ramamurthy, Indian Agriculture
Research Institute, New Delhi for encouragements. We also wish to express our
gratitude to Dr. H.V. Ghate, Department of Zoology,
Modern College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Pune for identifying / confirming
some of the species reported here.
ZooBank urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:5CBB5733-6BAE-4064-B445-46A9DFBFB7B7
For
images, tables -- click here
Members of the family Cerambycidae are commonly known as Longicorn or Long-horned
Beetles. This family includes a
vast assemblage of phytophagous and xylophagous insects. This is one of the largest families of Coleopteraand contains more than 35,000 species under 4,000 genera in 11 subfamilies
(Lawrence 1982). The family, though
predominant in tropics, is distributed throughout the world. The number of cerambycidspecies recorded from India is about 1500 (Beeson 1941; Breuning1960–62, 1963a, 1963b, 1964, 1965, 1966) including 13 species reported
from Tripura (Mukhopadhyay & Biswas2002). Several new species have
been described since the above studies, and many are being documented in Indian
territory for the first time (e.g. Ghate et al. 2006, 2011) and so
the number of cerambycid species found in India may
have changed.
Members of the subfamily Cassidinae (Chrysomelidae) are
popularly known as Tortoise Beetles. There are 2,760 species of tortoise beetles known in the world so far (Borowiec 1999) including 450 species recorded from India
and four species from Tripura (Basu 2002). Jacoby (1908), Maulik(1919, 1926), Scherer (1969), Takizawa (1980), Borowiec& Takizawa (1991) and Borowiec (1999) have
produced monographic works on Indian Chrysomelidae,
including tortoise beetles. In this
communication, 11 species of Cerambycidae and seven
species of Cassidinae beetles are reported as new
records from the state of Tripura in India.
Study site
Tripura, one of the border
states of northeastern India, lies between 22055’–24032’N
& 91021’–92016’E. The state has an area of 10,492km2with 53.62% of area under forest cover. Landscape of the state comprise of low hills covered with moist
deciduous forests dominated by Shorea andTectona trees with thick understorey,
undulating hillocks covered with secondary forests dominated by Dipterocarpus trees and bushes, and agricultural
plains dominated by paddy crop with rain-fed rivers and patches of plantation
crops (jute, tea, rubber) and fruit trees (pineapples, mango, cashew nuts and
jackfruits) (Chakraborty 1989, 2003). Thus, the landscape of Tripura is very
heterogeneous which provides edge effects and diverse habitat types for flora
and fauna.
Methods
Collections were made during
January 2007–December 2010 by frequent visits to forested and cultivated
habitats in different parts of the state. Collected specimens were identified to species level following key
characters provided by Gahan (1906), Maulik (1919, 1926), Cherepanov(1990), Mukhopadhyay & Biswas(2000), Basu (2002) and Mukhopadhyay& Halder (2004) and also by comparison with the
identified materials available in the ecology and biodiversity laboratories,
Department of Zoology, Tripura University where voucher specimens of species
reported here are kept.
Discussion
In the present study, 19
species of Cerambycidae belonging to three
subfamilies were recorded. The subfamily Lamiinae is
found to be dominant with 11 species, followed by Cerambycinaewith seven species, and one species belonged to the subfamily Prioninae. Eleven of these species are reported here for the first time from
Tripura (Table 1, Images 1–12). In case of tortoise beetles, eight species were recorded, of which seven
species are reported as new records from Tripura (Table 2, Images
13–20). Considering the lack
of studies on the Cerambycidae and Cassidinae insect biodiversity in this region, the findings
are very significant for the understanding of insect biodiversity in Tripura
State and providing baseline data.
References
Basu, C.R. (2002). Insecta:Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae. Fauna of Tripura, State Fauna Series, Zoological
Survey of India 7: 143–164.
Beeson, C.F.C. (1941). The Ecology and Control
of Forest Insects of India and the Adjoining Countries. Government
of India, 767pp.
Borowiec, L. (1999). A World
Catalogue of the Cassidinae (Coleoptera:Chrysomelidae). Biologia Silesiae,
Wroclaw, Poland, 476pp.
Borowiec, L. & H. Takizawa
(1991). Notes on Chrysomelid beetles (Coleoptera) of India and its neighbouringareas. Japanese Journal of Entomology 59:
637–654.
Breuning, S.
(1960–62). Revision systematique Des especes du genreOberea Mulsant du globe. Frustula Entomologica(Pt. 1, 2, 3): 232pp.
Breuning, S.
(1963a). Bestimmungstabellader Lamiiden Triben nebst
Revision der Pteropliini der asiatischen Region (Col.Ceramb.) 111 Teil. Entomologischen
Arbeiten ausdem Museum G. Frey 14: 168–251.
Breuning, S.
(1963b). Bestimmungstabelle der Lamiiden Triben nebst Revision der Pteropliini der asiatischen Region (Col. Ceramb.)111 Teil. Entomologischen Arbeiten ausdem Museum G. Frey 14: 466–537.
Breuning, S.
(1964). Revision der Apomecyninider asiatisch-australischen Region. Entomologische Abhandlungen Museum fur Tierkunde in Dresden 30: 528pp.
Breuning, S.
(1965). Revision der 35 Gattung
der Pteropliinider asiatischen Region (Col. Cerambycidae). Entomologische Arbeiten aus dem Museum G
Frey 16: 161–472.
Breuning, S.
(1966). Revision der Agapanthinider eurasiatisch australischen Region (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae). Entomologischen
Abhandlungen Museum fur Tierkunde in Dresden 34
(1): 144pp.
Chakraborty, N.K.
(1989). Useful plants of Tripura jute
fields. Journal of Economic and Taxonomic
Botany 13: 357–366.
Chakraborty, N.K. (2003). Tripurar Upakari Agacha. Jnan Bichitra Prakashani, Agartala, 160pp.
Cherepanov, A.I. (1990). Cerambycidae of Northern Asia: Lamiinae - Vol. 3,
Part 2. AmerindPublishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 324pp.
Gahan, C.J. (1906). The Fauna of
British India including Ceylon and Burma. Coleoptera: Cerambycidae. Taylor and Francis,
London, 329pp.
Ghate, H.V., M.H. Kichloo &
M. Arif (2006). First record of a cerambycid beetle Purpuricenus kabakovi Miroshnikov & Lobanovfrom Kashmir, northern India. Zoos’ Prints Journal21(11): 2473–2474.
Ghate, H.V., C.A. Viraktamath & R. Sundararaj(2011). First report of a Cerambycidbeetle (Capnolymma cingalensis)
from India. Taprobanica 3(2): 104–106.
Jacoby, M. (1908). The Fauna of
British India including Ceylon and Burma. Coleoptera:Chrysomelidae. Taylor and Francis, London, 1: xx+554pp.
Lawrence, J.F. (1982). Coleoptera, pp. 482–553. In: Parker, S. (ed.). Synopsis and Classification of Living Organisms. McGraw
Hill, New York.
Maulik, S. (1919). The Fauna of British India Including Ceylon and Burma. Coleoptera:Chrysomelidae (Cassidinaeand Hispinae). Taylor and Francis, London, xii+440pp.
Maulik, S. (1926). The Fauna of British
India, including Ceylon and Burma. Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae (Chrysomelinae and Halticinae).
Taylor and Francis, London, xiii+442pp.
Mukhopadhyay, P. & S. Biswas (2000). Coleoptera: Cerambycidae, pp. 41–67. In: Director (ed.). Fauna of Meghalaya, State Fauna Series 4 (Part 5). Zoological Survey of India Publication.
Mukhopadhyay, P. & S. Biswas (2002). Coleoptera:Cerambycidae, pp. 139–142. In: Director (ed.). Fauna of Tripura, State Fauna Series 7 (Part 3). Zoological Survey of India Publication.
Mukhopadhyay, P. & S.K. Halder (2004). Insecta:Coleoptera: Cerambycidae,
pp. 421–431. In: Director (ed.). Fauna of Manipur,
State Fauna Series 10 (Part 2). Zoological Survey
of India Publication.
Scherer, G. (1969). Die Alticinae des
indischen Subkotinentes (Coleoptera:Chrysomelidae). Pacific Insects Monographs 22: 1–251.
Takizawa, H. (1980). Immature
stages of some Indian Cassidinae (Coleoptera:Chrysomelidae). Insecta Matsumurana (New Series) 21: 19–48.