Relative abundance and diversity of Odonata in an irrigated rice field of Madurai, Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Odonata is the largest insect order, which is entirely predaceous in rice ecosystem. Both naiads and adults are voracious predators on other insects. Gunathilagaraj et al. (1999) recorded 16 species of Odonata in rice fields of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. Barrion and Litsinger (1994) listed 14 species of Odonata in rice fields of Asia and Africa. As for their predatory role in rice fields, the damselflies Ishnuera senegalensis, Agriocnemis pygmaea, Ishnuera delicata and Ceriagrion coromandelianum (Krishnasamay et al., 1983) were reported to be predating upon leaf-and planthoppers. They also reported the dragonflies Orthetrum Sabina, Crocothemis servilia, Pantala flavescens and Diplocodes nubulosa as effective predators of rice Lepidoptera. The present paper deals with the diversity of Odonata in rice ecosystem of Madurai, Tamil Nadu. MATERIALS AND METHODSThe diversity and relative abundance of Odonata was studied at the Wetlands of Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai, Tamil Nadu. The study area receives water from the Vaigai dam. The minimum and maximum temperatures of the experimental area were 28 0 C and 40 0 C, respectively, during Kharif (2000). The average rainfall of study area recorded was 928mm. Four popular rice varieties, viz., MDU 5, ADT 36, ADT 39 and ADT 43 were used during this season. Each variety was replicated into two treatments namely weeded plots (all the weeds removed) and partially weeded plots (10 weeds allowed/ m 2 ). The size of the experimental plot was 8 x 6m. The collection of adult dragonflies and damselflies in rice canopy ecosystem was done with sweep net. The collected adults were sorted out into respective taxa based on taxonomic characters and number of individuals in each taxon recorded. Sampling was taken at weekly intervals and a total of nine samplings taken during Kharif (2000). In the present investigation, Jaccard coefficient index of similarity (Jaccard, 1908) was used to study the diversity of Odonata between weeded and partially weeded rice ecosystems. RESULTSThe present study revealed that a total of 12 taxa of Odonata comprising of nine Anisoptera and three Zygoptera were recorded (Table 1). Among the Anisoptera, Pantala flavescens (Fabricius.), Diplocodes trivialis (Rambur), Crocothemis servilia (Drury) and Tramea limbata (Desjardins) were the dominant species. Other species, Orthetrum Sabina (Drury), Rhyothemis variegata (Linnaeus), Neurothemis tullia (Drury), Anax guttatus, and Trithemis sp. were recorded only at the tillering stage of the crop. Among the three species of Zygoptera, Agriocnemis femina femina Brauer was the dominant species than Agriocnemis pygmaea Rambur and Ishnura sp. The similarity statistics of dragonfly exhibited the similarity values between 0.77-0.88 in the first week and showed greater diversity (0.50) during fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth weeks (Table 2). Damselfly registered higher diversity (0.50) from the second week to seventh week. Both the dragonfly and damselfly exhibited 0.50 similarity in...

Ecological Studies of Odonata Population in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia

“…Ghahari et al (2009) recorded 30 species from 19 genera and 8 families of Odonata were collected and evaluated in Iran. Meanwhile Kandibane [30] revealed the inventory of 12 Odonata (9 species dragonflies and 3 species damselflies). Similar number of taxa were collected in the Phillipines (Mogi and Miyagi, 1990).…”

“…Damselfly Ischnura senegalensis, Agriocnemis pygmaea, Ischnura delicata, and Ceriagrion coromandelianum which can suppress the population of weevils leaves and rice stem borer (Krishnasamay et al 1984). Dragonfly of Orthetrum sabina types, Crocothemis servilea, Pantala flavescens, and Diplocoides nubulosa very effectively used as a predator on lepidopteran pests in rice crops [30]; Krishnasamay et al, 1984). This causes many types of dragonflies found in Station 3 suspected because dragonfly execute its strategic role as predators of rice plants, cassava, corn,or horticultural crops are planted in the field.…”

Agriocnemis femina (Odonata: Coenagrionidae) and its significance in environmental parameters of rice pests in northern Sumatra-Indonesia

“…All species of Odonata (dragonfly and damselfly) are predators both in the larval and adults stages; hence they are positioned at the higher level in aquatic and teresterial food chains (Bradley et Small size coenagrionid Zygopterans are commonly found in many rice fields such as in India (Gunathilagaraj, et al, 1999;Kandibane et al, 2005) and Thailand (Ruay Aree et al, 2000). Some damselflies species, Ischnura senegalensis, I. delicata, I. rufostigma, Agriocnemis pygmaea and Coenagrion coromandelianum commonly seen fluttering among rice leaves are more useful predators of planthoppers and leafhoppers (Gunathilagaraj, et al, 1999), whilst fast flying anisopterans usually catch bigger preys on flight, such as lepidopteran pests (Krishnasamy, 1984).…”

Diversity and Species Composition of Odonates (Insecta: Odonata) of Hutan Lipur Soga Perdana, Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia: A Green Lung

“…Several studies reported that Libellulidae and Coenagrionidae are top predators in both aquatic and terrestrial food chain and these family are usually aggressively consuming almost all flying insects [17,18]. Another study on the diversity, distribution and species composition of odonates in buffer areas in India found that Libellulidae was the most highest number of species that made up 53% of the samplings followed by Coenagrionidae with 19% as the second largest representative [19].…”