Beetles are a group of insects that form the order Coleoptera, in the superorder Endopterygota. It is estimated that a quarter of all described species in the world belongs to this order. The family Elateridae or click beetles is the ninth-largest family under this order. Wireworms are the larval stage of this family and they play a role in the ecosystem as they are omnivorous and act as pests. There are over 800 species of elaterids recorded from the Indian Subcontinent under eight subfamilies. India is rich in floral and faunal diversity and insect diversity in particular constitute about 6% of all identified insects in the world with a large number being endemic species. But in contrast to its extreme species richness, there is comparatively very little knowledge about this family of beetles when compared to other families. And as such, there is still a lot of potential to study its ecology and diversity. It is also because of this same reason that review of the status of the elaterid family is being done as a prequel to the actual field study.
An increase in urbanization and anthropogenic activities has led to a decrease in the area covered by forests which has an impact on the ecosystem and the diversity of flora and fauna. Coleopterans are a group of insects which are known to play an important role to study the impact of urbanization as they act as bioindicators. A study was conducted from September 2018 to October 2019 to determine the effect of urbanization and forest size on the beetle diversity in selected sites representing urban, semi-urban, and rural areas in and around Aizawl, Mizoram. Collection was done by setting up light traps as well as manual collection and other standard methods on a bi-monthly basis. A total of 445 beetles belonging to 15 families were collected. Identification of beetles was carried out only upto family level. Beetles community showed a significant variation in different degrees of urbanization as abundance and species diversity of beetles declined with increasing urbanization in different sites. In terms of the total number of individuals collected, the family Scarabaeidae was the most dominant (21.35%), followed by Cerambycidae (19.77%) and Lucanidae (11.91%) with the highest numbers collected from rural sites. The soil parameters were analyzed which showed a significant correlation with the forest size and this, in turn, affects the beetle diversity. Overall, the diversity of beetles (diversity index, richness, and abundance) is found to be affected in such a way that it is higher in rural sites as compared to urban sites.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.