Documenting the fauna of a small temporary pond from Pune, Maharashtra, India

Abstract

Most of the limnological studies in India have focussed on a few taxa of large, permanent water bodies, and pond ecosystems, and related temporary water bodies are neglected. We present here a faunal inventory, with representative photographs, for a single, small temporary pond, reporting over 125 species of strictly aquatic fauna and 25 species of associated fauna, even though we did not identify some groups such as Protozoa, Diptera and nymphs of Odonata, etc. The identified species belong to seven taxa of vertebrates and invertebrates together. Arthropoda and Rotifera were the most species rich groups, observed with 83 and 45 representatives, respectively. Coleoptera were the most numerous in terms of species number. Such a small water body holds some endemics as well as otherwise very rare animals and so deserves better attention. We also highlight the potential and importance of such habitats for research and conservation.