Insect Fauna associated with the Tea Ecosystem of North Bengal, India

Abstract

Present communication reports 167 species belonging to 139 genera of 42 families under 6 orders of insects from the tea gardens of North Bengal. Of them, Lepidoptera shares maximum number of species (77), followed by Hemiptera (29), Diptera (24), Coleoptera (19), Odonata (12) and Orthoptera (06). Among them, 20 species of Lepidoptera, 05 species of Hemiptera, 05 species of Coeloptera and 03 species of Orthoptera are found as tea pests. Besides this, 01 species of Diptera and Odonata are found as predators of tea pest. In addition to this, 14 species of Hemiptera, 11 species of Coleoptera and 09 species of Lepidoptera reported as pests/borers of other crops and timber plants. In addition to this, 03 species of Hemiptera and 03 species of Diptera as predator and 16 species of Diptera as flower visitors/pollinators in other ecosystem are also found.