Abstract
For gauging suitability of zygopteran odonates as bioindicators of ecosystems, an attempt was made to record the seasonal diversity of damselflies from seven different types of habitats in Paschim Medinipur District, West Bengal covering 14 land use sites. The study revealed existence of 19 species of damselflies belonging to 10 genera under two families. While the riparian zone had maximum number of species (15), paddy field had the lowest number (six). Ceriagrion coromandelianum and Agriocnemis pygmaea were the most common species. C. coromandelianum was eudominant in grassland and wetland-forest interface, whereas A. pygmaea was eudominant in fish pond and paddy field. Six species, viz., Paracercion calamorum, P. malayanum, Pseudagrion australasiae, P. decorum, P. spencei, and P. microcephalum were confined only to the riparian zone. Maximum abundance of damselflies was found in the riparian zone and minimum in the paddy field. Damselflies exhibited a distinct peak in March–April and a lesser peak in September–October. Most of the land use patterns exhibited similar zygopteran faunal composition. Species diversity index was moderate (1.4–2.5) and evenness index was on the higher side (0.76–0.94). Dominance Index ranged from 26.2 to 64.6. Riparian zone appeared to be the least stressed and most equitable habitat with highest diversity and evenness index and lowest dominance index. Paddy field seemed to be the harshest habitat for damselflies with least diversity and highest dominance index. The present study suggests that community analysis of damselflies can be quite useful in the assessment of the quality of any ecosystem.
Highlights
Sensitivity of damselflies to structural habitat features and their amphibious habit makes them well suited as bioindicators of environmental changes (Subramanian et al 2008; Dolný et al 2011)
This was followed by unmanaged wetland (UW) (13), fish pond (FP) (12), GL (10), eutrophic pond (EP) (8), wetland-forest interface (WFI) (7) and paddy field (PF) (6)
Maximum number of individuals was recorded at riparian zone (RZ) and minimum at PF
Summary
Sensitivity of damselflies to structural habitat features and their amphibious habit makes them well suited as bioindicators of environmental changes (Subramanian et al 2008; Dolný et al 2011). Considerable work has been done on the ecology and diversity of odonates in many parts of India, some of the latest ones are those of Baba et al (2019), D’Souza & Pai (2019), Payra et al (2020), Bedjanič et al (2020), and Pavithran et al (2020). Despite efforts of Jana et al (2009), large parts of Paschim Medinipur have remained unexplored with respect to odonate distribution and ecology.
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