Department of Zoology, Government Post Graduate College, Jhalawar and Department of Zoology, Government Post Graduate College, Kota, Rajasthan India

Article Publishing History

Introduction

Biological diversity is one of the most fascinating aspects of biology. Evolution by natural selection has produced, and is still producing different species. Biodiversity also encompasses functioning, intact plant and animal communities and the processes that affects them. Today India, is occupying a significant space, documenting nearly 7 percent of global faunal diversity. There are 1.4 millions species of insects described in the scientific literature which is 80% of life currently recorded on earth. The estimation indicates there may be as many as 30-50 million species of insects making this perceives terrestrial orthopodial groups 97% of global diversity. (Erwin, 1982, 1983b, Ghosh, 1990, 1994, Hammond, 1992, Hammond, 1999, Chandra 2011, Patel et.al. (2015) and Ditchkoff, 2016).

Great insect diversity is indeed an intrinsic part of the Earth’s ecosystem. They are what make the ecosystems tick, remarked (Samways, 1994). However, the insect fauna of India is vast. In the present study the largest number of species (21) identified was of order Lepidoptera. In India the researches work of Sharma et.al. (2012) in foothills of Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh; Parandhaman 2012) in different habitats from Tamilnadu part of Western Ghats; Kaneria et.al. (2013) in Bilaspur District, Chhattisgarh; Qureshi et.al. (2013) in District Kupwara from Jammu and Kashmir State; Saikia (2014) in Gauhati University campus, Assam; Arya et al., (2014) in and around Kumaun University, Nainital, Uttarakhand; all these workers have provided valuable information on various insects and butterflies with reference to their diversity and abundance.

A comprehensive account of insect diversity of Sikkim has been provided by Chandra (2011) where insect diversity of Sikkim, was studied. Altogether, 5892 species belonging to 2382 genera under 261 families and 22 orders of Insect have been reported from the state of Sikkim. In an intensive study made by Patel et.al. (2015) in Jabalpur Community Forest Reserve, a total of 774 individual of insects from 13 orders were recorded during the study. A preliminary study on abundance and diversity of insect fauna in Gulbarga District, Karnataka, India was conducted by Belamkar and Jadesh in 2012. A total of 11,318 insects from 6 orders, 26 families and 54 species were recorded.

In present investigation the insects were collected from the Post Graduate Goverment College campus, Jhalawar. Insects live in highly diverse habitats and could be found practically everywhere on the campus. In present study, collection of most of the insects (species) was done, between 1100 -0200 hrs and twice in the year 2012; in the month of Feb.-March and Sept-Oct. Majority of the insects were collected from all sorts of plants: grass, flowers, weeds, shrubs and trees. Some were found around and on the walls of building blocks. The main objective of this study was to collect and identify insect species, diversity and abundance of insects in the college campus, Jhalawar. Vegetation of campus was of mixed type which includes trees, climbers, grass, medicinal plants, shrubs, ornamental plants and herbs. Many groups of insects recognized were: Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, Odonata, Hemiptera, Orthoptera, Coleoptera and Neuroptera. They are unique in their own way and have an important ecological role for survival of life on Earth.

Most of the insects in this study were collected manually i.e. by sweep netting, hand picking and beating tray or by visual search method. Collected insects were transferred in bottles for killing that contains cotton soaked with ethyl acetate covered with lid. Later on specimens were sorted out into different taxonomic groups. All the specimens were stretched, pinned, labeled and left for 72 hrs to prevent decomposition. As some species dragonflies were sighted in very few numbers in college campus, it was difficult to catch them, but we have taken the best possible photographs of those dragonflies. Identification of insects was done at IARI New Delhi and MPUAT, Udaipur. A total of 38 individuals belonging to 07 orders were recorded from the campus of Government College Jhalawar.

Insects of 07 orders belonging to 16 families 38 species were collected and identified. Maximum species of Lepidoptera identified was 21 in number belonging to 5 families. In other parts of Rajasthan abundance of Lepidoptera individuals was observed. The extensive studies on Lepidopterous insects associated with vegetables were conducted indifferent localities of Aravalli Range of Rajasthan i.e. Mount Abu, Udaipur, Rajsamand, Pushkar, Ajmer, Jaipur, Sikar, Jhunjhunu, Sariska, Alwar, Dausa and Bharatpur during 2008-11.

A total of 38 species of Lepidopterous insects associated with vegetables in Aravalli Range of Rajasthan were recorded, out of 152 species of Lepidopterous insects recorded from India (Sharma, 2011). Further in the present study, number of indentified species was followed by Hymenoptera (5), Odonata (4), Hemiptera (3), Orthoptera (3), Coleoptera (1) and Neuroptera (1). The 5 species of Hymenoptera belonging to 3 families; 3 species of Hemiptera belonging to 2 families were identified.

Likewise number of species of Odonata identified was 4, belonging to 2 families which were captured and identified by Koli et al., in the year 2014 in a study, of south Rajasthan, which explored the diversity and species composition of Odonata.. Odonates were sampled from13 localities i.e., Pichola lake, Udaisagar lake, Badi lake, Ghasa lake, Menar lake, Badwai lake, Rup sagar lake, Rolitodgarh Wildlife Sanctuary, Sitamata Wildlife Sanctuary, Karmoi river stream in Sitamata WLS, College campus, Rajsmand lake and Meja dam.

In the present study, out of these insects, individuals of the order Lepidoptera: Terias hecabe and Lampides boeticus, were found to be dominant (Table:1.1), while minimum was of beetle (Coleoptera) Chrysocoris chinonsis and (Neuroptera) Crolen species; as shown in the table. In Central India a total of only 10 species of ground beetles were recorded (All the species were recorded for the first time from Melghat Tiger Reserve) Thakare et al., (2013) and in our study we have recorded only one species of beetle.

Table 1: Identified Insects in College Campus, Jhalawar; Year 2011-12
S. NO.	ORDER	FAMILY	GENUS SPECIES	ABUNDANCE (Approx. no. of insects)
1.	Lepidoptera	Pieridae	Ixias marianne (Linnaeus)	22
2.	Lepidoptera	Pieridae	Catopsilia pyranthe	14
3.	Lepidoptera	Pieridae	Terias hecabe (Linnaeus)	152
4.	Lepidoptera	Pieridae	Catopsilia pomona	27
5.	Lepidoptera	Pieridae	Anaphaeis aurota (Febricius)	12
6.	Lepidoptera	Pieridae	Eurema laeta (Boisduval)	16
7.	Lepidoptera	Pieridae	Appias albina (Boisduval)	22
8.	Lepidoptera	Nymphalidae	Junonia lemonias	25-30
9.	Lepidoptera	Nymphalidae	Junonia (Precis) atlites (Linnaeus)	28
10.	Lepidoptera	Nymphalidae	Junonia almona	18
11.	Lepidoptera	Nymphalidae	Junonia orithya	37
12.	Lepidoptera	Nymphalidae	Danaus chrysippus (Linnaeus)	45
13.	Lepidoptera	Nymphalidae	Telchinia violae (Febricius)	4
14.	Lepidoptera	Nymphalidae	Parantica aglea	12
15.	Lepidoptera	Papilionidae	Pachliopta aristolochiae	8
16.	Lepidoptera	Papilionidae	Papilio demoleus	11
17.	Lepidoptera	Papilionidae	Zetides agamemnon	12
18.	Lepidoptera	Lycaenidae	Lampides boeticus	250
19.	Lepidoptera	Lycaenidae	Catochrysops enjus	68
20.	Lepidoptera	Lycaenidae	Castalius rosimon	5
21.	Lepidoptera	Arctiidae	Utethesia pulchella	3
22.	Hymenoptera	Apidae	Xylocopa fenestrate	9
23.	Hymenoptera	Apidae	Apis florae	24
24.	Hymenoptera	Apidae	Apis dorsata	46
25.	Hymenoptera	Vespidae	Ropalidia marginata	38
26.	Hymenoptera	Sphecidae	Liris species	9
27.	Odonata	Lebellulidae	Orthetrum taeniolatum (schreides)	18
28.	Odonata	Lebellulidae	Neurothemis intermedia intermedia (romber)	18
29.	Odonata	Lebellulidae	Brachythemis cantaminata (febricui)	22
30.	Odonata	Coenagrionidae	Ceriagrion coromandelianun (febricui)	21
31.	Hemiptera	Pentatomidae	Halys parvus (chopra)	19
32.	Hemiptera	Pentatomidae	Erthesina fullo (Thunberg)	45
33.	Hemiptera	Lygacidae	Spilostethus pandurus	55
34.	Orthoptera	Acrididae	Catantops karnys / pinguis	20
35.	Orthoptera	Acrididae	Acrididae exalatata	28
36.	Orthoptera	Tettigonidae	Himertula pallisignata	14
37.	Coleoptra	Buprestidae	Chrysocoris chinonsis	2
38.	Neuroptera	Myrrnelontidae	Creoleon spc.	16

It is concluded that a small compact area like a segregated college campus supports a diverse butterfly community. Similar type of study on insect biodiversity has been carried out by Grampurohit and Karkhanis (2013). However, the results which are being presented in this paper might be the first comprehensive list of insects in the Jhalawar district. Hopefully, there will be a further research study on the insect biodiversity of this area, in order to get better and comprehensive information on those aspects to be documented for future reference.

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our heartiest gratitude to Dr. Swamynathan (ICAR Network Project on Insect Biosystematics, Department of Entomology, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, MPUAT), Udaipur and Dr. V. V. Ramamurthy (Insect Identification Service Division of Entomology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110012) for helping us in identifying insects up to species level.

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