Biodiversity Data Journal :
Taxonomic Paper
|
Corresponding author: P. R. Shashank (spathour@gmail.com)
Academic editor: Bong-Kyu Byun
Received: 06 Sep 2021 | Accepted: 04 Oct 2021 | Published: 06 Oct 2021
© 2021 J. Komal, P. R. Shashank, Sanjay Sondhi, Sohail Madan, Yash Sondhi, Naresh Meshram, S. Anooj
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Komal J, Shashank PR, Sondhi S, Madan S, Sondhi Y, Meshram NM, Anooj SS (2021) Moths (Insecta: Lepidoptera) of Delhi, India: An illustrated checklist based on museum specimens and surveys. Biodiversity Data Journal 9: e73997. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.9.e73997
|
|
There have been several recent checklists, books and publications about Indian moths; however, much of this work has focused on biodiversity hotspots such as North-east India, Western Ghats and Western Himalayas. There is a lack of published literature on urban centres in India, despite the increased need to monitor insects at sites with high levels of human disturbance. In this study, we examine the moths of Delhi, the national capital region of India, one of the fastest growing mega-metropolitan cities. We present a comprehensive checklist of 338 moths species using 8 years of light trapping data (2012-2020) and examining about 2000 specimens from historical collections at the National Pusa Collection of ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi (NPC-IARI) spanning over 100 years (1907-2020). The checklist comprises moths from 32 families spanning 14 superfamilies with Noctuoidea (48.5%) and Pyraloidea (20.4%) being the the two most dominant superfamilies. We provide links to images of live individuals and pinned specimens for all moths and provide detailed distribution records and an updated taxonomic treatment.
This is the first comprehensive annotated checklist of the moths of Delhi. The present study adds 234 species to the biodiversity of moths from Delhi that were not reported previously, along with illustrations for 195 species.
species checklist, biodiversity inventory, Pusa, Heterocera, India
Lepidoptera Linnaeus, 1758 which includes butterflies and moths, is one of the largest insect orders consisting of 45 super families and having 157,424 species described (
In this study, we focus on the moth fauna of Delhi, the National capital territory of India, one of the largest growing metropolitan centres in the world with an estimated population of 23 million (
In general, the insect fauna of Delhi has received less attention with only very few groups like butterflies (Lepidoptera) (
There are limited studies in India that have utilised moth collections preserved in museums and none that have integrated this with primary survey data and secondary data from literature and citizen science projects. In the present work, we have studied the moth collections at National Pusa Collection, Division of Entomology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi (NPC-IARI) which is one of the four important Lepidoptera collections in India (
In the present study, the biodiversity of moths of the region was studied by an exhaustive exploration of the museum holdings of the National Pusa Collection, Department of Entomology at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Delhi (NPC-IARI) which is one of the largest insect repositories in Asia for agricultural pests since the 1900s. The specimens of moths belonging to Delhi were sorted separately for the present study. A database has been created from individual specimens, based on label data including the name of the collector, date of collection, method of collection, associated host plants and sex. This includes more than 1500 specimens since 1907 up to 2020 which can be accessed at Moths of Delhi, India dataset. Furthermore, identification and reconfirmation of all the specimens was done and were updated to their current taxonomic positions. All the representative species were photographed with a Cannon 70D with a 100 mm macro lens. The micromoths were photographed with a digitalised camera Leica DFC 425C on the Leica 19205FA Stereozoom Automountage microscope.
Field surveys were conducted from 2012 to 2020 by setting up light traps at different locations, viz. the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR- IARI), Pusa (
The available literature was used to identify the moths, including
Along with the above museum collection data and surveys, additionally, data from citizen science internet portals, such as the Moths of India (http://www.mothsofindia.org/;
Finally, a comprehensive checklist has been prepared by including all the data from museum specimens, field surveys, available literature and citizen science portals. The classification system used by
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Inaturalist, Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study
Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study
Present study; Fig.
Present study
Present study; Fig.
Present study
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study
Rajesh et al. 2012, Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study
Present study
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study
Present study; Fig.
Present study
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Kumar et al. 2012, Present study
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study
Present study; Fig.
Paul et al. 2017; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Inaturalist; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study; Fig.
Present study;