Plecoptera: India
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Faunal Diversity in India: Plecoptera
This is an extract from FAUNAL DIVERSITY IN INDIA Edited by J. R. B. Alfred A. K. Das A. K. Sanyal. ENVIS Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta. 1998 ( J. R. B. Alfred was Director, Zoological Survey of India) |
Introduction
Plecoptera or Stoneflies are found in high altitude hill streams of cold temperate regions. The nymphs are found on stony surface of these streams and the adults are found near the streams on tree trunks, stones and bushes. They are weak flier and prefer to run to elude predators. They are diurnal except a few species of Setipalpia which are nocturnal. Food of the adult consists of algae, lichen and foliage though many species may not feed at all as adults live only few weeks. The composition of Stonefly fauna varies in different seasons and habitats. Brachyptery or winglessness is usually found during the winter season. Probably this group evolved from an ancestral form of Orthoptera and Blattaria type in the permian period.
Very few workers have worked on this group from India, may be due to scanty availability of material. The following workers worked on Indian Plecoptera, viz., Needham (1909), Banks (1914), Kimmins (1964, 1950), Aubert (1959,1967), Jewett (1958, 1960, 1975), Kawai (1963), Shing (1971,1977), Zwick & Sivce (1980), Zwick (1981).
Status Of The Taxon
Approximately 2,100 species under 180 genera of 15 families have been recorded from the world. Among these, 113 species under 20 genera of 7 families have been recorded from India, representing 5.38 per cent of the world species.
Distribution
In India distribution is mainly restricted to the Himalayan belt with distribution of a few species in hilly areas of South India. The familywise distribution of species are as follows:
Family Nemouridae: This is the largest family recorded. Under this family 66 species of 3 genera have been recorded from Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh in the North Western Himalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, West Bengal in the North Eastern Himalaya. Family Perlidae : Under this family 32 species of 8 genera have been recorded. Species of this family have been recorded from Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh in the North Western Himalaya and Sikkim, West Bengal in Eastern Himalaya. Quite a few species have also been recorded from hilly areas of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Family Perlodidae ; Under this family only 3 species of two genera have been recorded from Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh in the North West Himalaya and in hilly areas of Tamil Nadu.
Family Capniidae : This family is represented by six species under 2 genera and is reported from Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh in North West Himalaya and in hilly areas of Tamil Nadu.
Family Luctridae : This is represented by two species under 2 genera and is reported from Himachal Pradesh and Meghalaya.
Family Taeniopterygidae : This family is represented by two species under 2 genera and is reported from Himachal Pradesh only. Family Peltoperlidae : This family is represented by two species under one genus and has been reported from Assam and West Bengal in the North Eastern Himalaya.
Endemicity
This group is very much restricted to its special habitat. For this reason their distribution is restricted to high altitude hilly areas only. The nymphs are habituated to live in fast flowing hill streams having stony substratum and are not swept away easily by water current. Respiration took place cutaneously and through gills. Food consists of Diatoms, algae, and other insect larvae. They live only in oxygen rich water. Adults emerge afterpassing through 22 to 33 instars.
Among 113 species reported so far from India about 66 species are endemic to this country. This shows that 74% of the reported species are endemic.
Value
This group is important in the sense that it acts as biological indicator for water pollution. They are the first group of insects to perish in polluted water as larvae of this group can not survive in water with slight drop in dissolved oxygen.
Threats
Due to human interferance in polluting fresh water streams their number is dwindling. The ever increasing human population and their indiscriminate mountain expedition cause great concern for the survival of this group.
Selected References
Bauman, R. 1975. Revision of the Stonefly family Nemouridae (Plecoptera). A study of the world fauna of the Generic level. Snrilil. Conlr. Zool., 211 :74pp. Classen, P. 1940. A calaloglle of Il,e Plecoplera of Ilze Worled. Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. (U.s.A.). Hynes, H. B. N. 1976, Biology of Plecoptera. Ann. Rev. £1110/110/., 21 : 135-153. T. Kawai. 1967. FOlino Japol1ica (Plecoplera). Biogeographical society of Japan. National Science Museum. Taito ku, Tokyo.
Plecoptera
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Introduction
Plecoptera or stone flies are generally found in the high altitude hill streams of cold temperate regions. The nymphs are found attached to stony surfaces of the fresh water bodies and the adults are found near the streams or on tree trunks, stones and bushes. They are not conspicuous insects, except the Chloroperlidae which are bright green in colour. The nymphs play an important role in the food chain of aquatic ecosystem. They are weak and fluttery fliers. Many species prefer to run rather than to fly to elude the predators. They are mostly diurnal, except a few species of the suborder Setipalpia which are nocturnal. Food of the adults consists of algae, lichen and foliage, though many species appear to be not feeding at all. The adults live only a f~w weeks. The composition of stonefly fauna varies in different seasons and habitats. Brachyptery or winglessness is usually found during the winter season. Plecoptem might have evolved from an ancestral fonn of Orthopteran and Blattaria type in the permian period. Further evolution and dispersal of the families probably took place in the paleozoic era.
Historical Resume
Works on Plecoptera were done on the availability of material which were scanty. Needham (1909) was the first person who worked on Indian Plecoptera, followed by Banks (1914). In recent years a number of workers took up the group, viz., Kimmins (1946,1950), Aubert (1959, 1967), Jewett (1958, 1960, 1975), Kawai (1963), Singh (1971, 1977), Zwick and Sivec (1980) and Zwick (1981), who worked on taxonomy.
Area-wise Studies
In India this group mainly occur in the hilly regions. however, the collections made were very meagre. In the Nordi-Eastern region, collections were made from West Bengal (Darjeeling dist.), Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and lvlanipur, (Auben 1967). In the North-West region, collections were made from Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Ultar Pradesh (Jewett 1975, Zwick and Sivec, 1980). In Southern India collections were made from Tamil Nadu (Nilgiri hills, Anaimalai hills, Nagarcoil, Tinnevelly), Karnataka (Bhadravati, Shimoga) and Kerala (Kalpatti) (Zwick 1981). Thus many more areas in the country, particularly Himalayan belt, needed to be explored to augment the collections of this group
Estimation of Taxa and Classified Treatment
A total of Seven families, 20 genera and 113 s~i~ have been recorded from India so far. Approximately 2100 species under 180 genera of 15 families'have been known from the world.
Family NemourIdae
This is the largest family in India and composed of three genera and 66 species. Major works on this family have been done by Aubert (1959, 1967), Jewett (1958, 1960) Zwick and Sivec (1980), on the fauna of Eastern and N.W. Himalaya.• Baumann (1975) has made a revision of the world genera. Quite a few species are endemic to Indian subcontinent.
Family Perlidae
The family is represented by eight genera and 32 species. Work on this group was done by Kawai (1963), Jewett (1958), Needham (1909), Banks (1914), Zwick and Sivec (1980, 1981). They worked on the fauna of Eastern, North-Western Himalaya and Southern India. Few species of this group are apparently endemic• to Southern India.
Family Perlodidae
Only two genera and three species of this family occur in India. This family has been worked put by Jewett (1958, 1960) from North-West Himalaya and Southern India.
Family Capnudae
The family is represented by only two genera and six species. Jewett (1958, 1960) has worked out the N. W.. Himalaya and South Indian fauna.
Family Lucuidae
Two genera and two species of this family are reported. Needham (1909), Banks (1914) and Jewett (1958) worked on the collections of Assam and Himachal Pradesh.
Family Taniopterygidae
This is represented by two genera and two species. This group has been dealt by Kimnins (1946), and Jewett (1958) from Himachal Pradesh.
Family Peltoperlidae
This family is represented by one genus and two species. Kimmins (1950) has worked on this group from Assam.
Besides these, few other publications by Kimmins (1946, 1950), and Zwick (1980) have dealt with the collections made from North-East Himalaya.
Current Studies
Studies on this group have been taken up by Das, Singh and others in ZSI recently. State wise fauna is being worked out on the basis of collected specimens and literature records. West Bengal fauna comprises of 21 species in 10 genera; and Meghalaya fauna comprises of 19 species in 8 genera.
Expertise India
In ZSI
B. C. Das, A. Chatterjee, A. L. Dutta, all of ZSI, M 'Block, New Alipore, Calcutta -700 053. R. K. Singh, Central Regional Station, ZSI, 1544/A Napier Road. Jabalpur -.482 001.
Abroad
P. Wick, Limnologische Aubstation, Max Plank Institute fUr Limnologie, Postfah -260, D 6407, Schlitz (Germany).
R. Baumann, Monte L. Bean life Science Museum, Brigham Younge University, Provo, Utah -84602 (USA).
H. B. N. Hynes, Dept of Biology, University of Waterloo, Ontario (Canada). T. Kawai, Zoological Institute, College of Science, Nara Womens University, Nara (Japan).
Selected References
Classen, P. 1940. A Catalogue ofthe Plecoptera ofthe world: 235 pp. Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (U.S.A.).
Kawai, T. 1967. Fauna Japonica (Plecoptera). Biogeographical society of Japan, National Science. Museum" uyeno Park, Taito -ku, Tokyo, (Japan).
Baumann, R. 1975, Revision of the stone fly family Nemouridae (plecoptera) -A study of the world fauna of the generic level. Smith. contr. Zool., 211 : 74 pp.
