STUDY OF BIODIVERSITY OF ORTHOPTERA FROM PUNJAB, PAKISTAN
MUHAMMAD NAWAB *
Department of Zoology, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan.
RIFFAT SULTANA
Department of Zoology, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan.
SANTOSH KUMAR
Department of Zoology, Cholistan University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The present study was carried out from January 2018 to December 2020 to investigate the biodiversity, richness and evenness of Orthoptera from Punjab, Pakistan. The Punjab province has agriculture, sandy and rocky areas. The total 22 species of Orthoptera were recorded, 10 species belonged to suborder Ensifera and 12 species belonged to suborder Caelifera. Among them, 11 species belonged to family Acrididae, 10 to family Tettigoniidae and 1 to family Pyrgomorphidae. The highest species abundance and species richness recorded for family Acrididae and the lowest recorded for family Pyrgomorphidae. The more biodiversity was recorded from agricultural areas as compared to rocky and sandy areas. The biodiversity indices of agricultural areas were 0.7665, 2.2196 and sandy areas were 0.4707, 0.7650, while rocky areas were 0.3973, 0.6960, respectively. The species richness trend was 5.6724 for agricultural, 2.4013 for sandy and 1.8952 for rocky areas, respectively. The species evenness recorded were 0.5709, 0.4163, 0.6734 in agriculture, sandy and rocky areas, respectively.
Keywords: Biodiversity, Orthoptera, Punjab, agriculture, sandy, rocky areas