Acridid (Orthoptera) fauna of agricultural ecosystem in some southern districts of Tamil Nadu, India

R Ananthaselvi,S Janarthanan,K.A.M Karthikeyan,P Suresh,I Vijayakumar

doi:10.11609/jott.o1621.491-2

Abstract

Thirty-one species of Acridids were identified belonging to the families Acrididae (25 species) and Pyrgomorphidae (6 species) from the monocot and dicot crop fields in Madurai, Dindigul, Sivaganga, Virudhunagar, and Theni of the Southern districts of Tamil Nadu. The feeding guild of the acridids recorded 9 species of grass feeder, 1 species of dicot feeder and 21 species of mixed feeder. Among the Acridids collected 18 species were recorded as core species based on their abundance from the areas surveyed and the other 13 species were designated as satellite species due to their sporadic distribution.

Highlights

Among grasshoppers the acridids are the most important group their diversity and distribution in agricultural ecosystem was studied and reported here
Acridids were collected by sweep-net technique from the agricultural ecosystem of Madurai, Dindigul, Sivaganga, Virudhunagar, and Theni of the Southern districts in Tamil Nadu, India during the years 2004 and 2005
Acridids were categorized based on their feeding guilds namely grass feeder (GF), dicot feeder (DF) and mixed feeder (MF) those feed on both the groups of plants

Summary

Introduction

Among grasshoppers the acridids are the most important group their diversity and distribution in agricultural ecosystem was studied and reported here. Acridids were collected by sweep-net technique from the agricultural ecosystem (crop fields and grasslands) of Madurai, Dindigul, Sivaganga, Virudhunagar, and Theni of the Southern districts in Tamil Nadu, India during the years 2004 and 2005. The collected species were identified adopting the conventional taxonomic procedures following the keys prescribed by Dirsh (1961) and Kirby (1914). Acridids were categorized based on their feeding guilds namely grass feeder (GF), dicot feeder (DF) and mixed feeder (MF) those feed on both the groups of plants.

Results

Conclusion