Orthoptera Acrididae: India

Select Language Afrikaans Albanian Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Basque Belarusian Bulgarian Bengali Catalan Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Filipino Finnish French Galician Georgian German Greek Gujarati Haitian Creole Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Khmer Korean Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian Malay Maltese Marathi Nepali Norwegian Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swahili Swedish Tamil Telugu Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese Welsh Yiddish

This is an extract from ANIMAL RESOURCES OF INDIA: Protozoa to Mammalia State of the Art. Zoological Survey of India, 1991. By Professor Mohammad Shamim Jairajpuri Director, Zoological Survey of India and his team of devoted scientists. The said book is an enlarged, updated version of The State of Art Report: Zoology Edited by Dr. T. N. Ananthakrishnan, Director, Zoological Survey of India in 1980.

Note: This article is likely to have several spelling mistakes that occurred during scanning. If these errors are reported as messages to the Facebook page, Indpaedia.com your help will be gratefully acknowledged.

Orthoptera Acrididae

Introduction

The members of this family are commonly known as short homed grasshoppers. The migratory forms of this family are tenned as locusts. Grasshoppers are readily recognized by the short antennae, usually shorter than the body, three segmented tarsi, auditory organs located on the fIrSt abdominal segment and the presence ofa short stout ovipositor. Among the grasshoppers are found some of the most important agricultural pests of mankind. They have destroyed the crops of man from biblical days to the present time.

Historical Resume

Probably State ( 1860, 1873) initiated the study of Indian Acrididae. Walker ( 1870, 1871) and Saussure ( 1884, 1888) also studied some Indian fauna. From 1990 onwards, major contributions were made by Bolivar ( 1902, 1909, 1917-1918). A notable taxonomical work on Acrididae was made by Kirby ( 1914 ) in the series 'Fauna of British India' Uvarov ( 1921, 1924, 1927, 1942) studied in detail Indian Acrididae. Roonwal ( 1936, 1945, 1946, 1958 and 1976) contributed some studies on the nymphal structures and ecology on Acrididae. Bhowmik ( 1964, 1965, 1986), Tandoo and Shishodia ( 1969-1989) have contributed works on the taxonomy of this group. More recently, Shishodia and Hazra (1985), Tandon and Hazra (1988) have done work on taxonomy as well as on ecology of this group. Others notable ecological and biological works on Acrididae from India are of Hafez and Ibrahim ( 1958, 1962), Katiyar ( 1955 ), Iqbal and Aziz (1974), Parihar (1974), Muralirangan and Ananthakrishnan (. 1977 ), Tandon and Khera ( 1978 ), Julka et ale (1982), Hazm et ale (1981) and .Tandon et al., (1988).

Studies from Different Environs

The acridids are found in all ecosystems, from plains•, agricultural lands mountain areas to semi-arid lands in India. A number of faunistic surveys have been made by parties of the Zoological Survey of India in different States of the country. The acridid fauna of the State of West Bengal (Hazra et ale 1990) are the out-come of such studies.

Estimation of Taxa

The family is divided into 17 subfamilies and altogether over 6000 species under about 1000 genera are known from the world. From India 14 subfamilies, 138 genera and 310 species have been reported.

Classified Treatment

Ander ( 1939 ) divided the order Orthoptera into two suborders namely Ensifera and Caelifera. The suborder Caelifera includes shorthomed grasshoppers. Dirsh ( 1961 ) regarded Acridoidea as a separate suborder. The number of known genera and species under Indian subfamilies are as follows:

Acridinae, 17 genera and 39 species; Truxallinae, 1 genus and 3 species; Gomphocerinae, 12 genera and 35 species; Oedipodinae, 22 genera and 45 species; Dericorythinae, 1 genus and 4 species; Romaleinae, 3 genera and 9 species; Hemiacridinae, 13 genera and 35 species; Oxyinae, 7 genera and 19 species; Coptacridinae, 4 genera and 12 species; Tropidopolinae, 6 genera and 7 species; Calliptaminae, 6 genera and 14 species; Eypreocnemidjnae, 12 genera and 26 species; Catantopinae, 27 genera and 51 species and Cyrtacanthacridinae, 7 genera and 11 species.

Current Studies

At present the scientists of Zoological Survey of India are actively engaged in studying the taxonomy, ecology and biology of this group. S. K. Tandon is preparing a volume on Indian Acrididae under the 'Fauna of India' series. Recently. Usmani and Shafee (1985) from Aligarh Muslim University have contributed some work on the subfamily _Oxyinae.

Expertise India

In ZSI

H. K. Bhowmik, Sunderban Field Research Station, Zoological Survey of India, P.O. Canning, South 24 Parganas (W. Bengal). S. K. Tandon, A. K. Hazra, M. S. Shishodia, S. K. Mondal and A. Dey, all of ZSI, M-Block, New Alipur, Calcutta-700053.

Elsewhere

S. Adam Shafee and M. Kamil Usmani, Department of Zoology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh -202 00r. P. Halder, Deparunent of Zoology, Viswa Bharati University, Santiniketan. West Bengal.

Abroad

N. D. Jago, Incharge, Acridid Taxonomy, Tropical Development & Research Institute, College House, Wrights Lane, London W8 5SJ (U.K.). D. Hollis, Deparunent of Entomology, British Museum (Nat. HisL), Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD (U.K.).

Fer Willemse, Laurastraat 67, 6471 JH Eygelshoven ( Netherlands).

Selected References

Bei-Bienko, G. Y 1951. In Bei-Bienko, G. Y. &Mishchenko, L.L., Acridoidea of the U.S.S.R. and adjacent countires. Part'll (In Russian). Opred. Faune SSSR 40 : 1-286. Bhowmik, H. K. 1986. Grasshopper fauna of West Bengal, India. (Orthoptera : Acrididae). Tech. Monograph, ZooI. Surv. India, No. 14 : 1 -180. Dirsh, V. M. 1965. The African genera ofAcridoidea. Cambridg~, 579 + 8 pp. Jago, N. D. 1971. A review of the Gomphocerinae of the world with a key to the genera (Orth. :

Acrididae). Proc. Acad. nat. Sci. Phil., 123 : 205-343. Kirby, W. F. 1914. The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Orthoptera (Acridiidae): ix + 276 pp., London. Ragge, D. R. 1955. The wing-venation of the Orthoptera Saltatoria, with notes on Dictyopteran Wing-venation: vi + 159 pp. London. Roonwal, M. L. ( 1958 ) 1961. Bibliographia Acrididiorum. A bibliography of the Orthopterous insects of the family Acrididae (comprising the short-homed-grasshoppers and locusts) from the earliest times to the end of 1954 ( with some additions for 1955-57). Rec. Indian Mus., 56: 1 -611.

Shishodia, M. S. &Hazra, A. K. 1986. Orthopteran fauna of Silent Valley, Kerala. Rec. zool. Surv. India., 84 : 191 -228.

TandoD, S. K. 1976. A Check-list of the Acridoidea (Orthoptera) of India. Part I. Acrididae. Rec. zoo[ Surv., India, Occ. paper No.3: 1 -84.

TandoD, S. K. & Shishodia, M. S. 1989. Insecta: Orthoptera: Acridoidea. Fauna o/Orissa: State Fauna Series 1 (Part 2) : 93-145. Uvarov, B; P. 1966. Grasshoppers and L.ocusts. A hand book of gener(ll Acridology, Vol. 1 : 1¬ 481. University Press, Cambridge.

Willemse, C. 1955. Synopsis of the Acridoidea of the Indo-Malayan and Adjacent Regions. (Insecta, Orthoptera) Part II. Fam. Acrididae. Subfamily Catantopinae Part one. Public Nat. Hist. Gen. Limburg, Reeks 8 : 1-225.