Plecoptera: India

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=Plecoptera

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.