On the Diversity and Abundance of Beetles in Lakhimpur, Assam India

Abstract

This investigation is a short term assessment which is attempted to explore the diversity of beetles in Lakhimpur, Assam as the region is extensively familiar for its biodiversity enrichment. Lakhimpur, a district of Assam receives tropical wet evergreen forest and lies in northern bank of river Bramhaputra. The district is adobe to many valuable flora and fauna. Trigerred by our inquisitiveness, we planned an experiment and collected beetle samples from 4 distinct areas as paddy land, vegetable, garden and forest areas. Beetles were collected twice a day from 6.30-11am during morning and 3-5 pm during evening. Several approved collection techniques like Light trap, Pitfall trap, hand picking were applied. Beetles were then brought to the laboratory and stored in 4% formaldehyde in sterilised small glass vials. Identification was done followed by standard identification manuals. Remarkably, 25 species of beetles belonging to 13 different families have been identified in Lakhimpur as May beetle, Derobrachus geminates, Oriental beetle, Aphodine dung beetle, Heteronychus arator, Gonocephalum simplex, Chrysochus cobaltinus, Compsosternus auratus, Gyrinus substriatus and others.Weather parameters like temperature, relative humidity, rainfall may have influence over beetle abundance in Lakhimpur. Our beyond expectation findings clearly indicated that Lakhimpur, like other parts of Assam is heavily blessed with different varieties of insects .