Survey of Orthoptera in the Desert National Park, Rajasthan, India
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.9114.17.1.26421-26425Keywords:
Grasshopper, grassland, habitat, insect, season, sweep net, Thar DesertAbstract
Members of the insect order Orthoptera comprising grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets form a dominant and vital group of invertebrates in the arid environment. Orthopterans play an important role in grassland ecosystems and their species diversity and abundance in grasslands are much higher compared to those in the agricultural and scrubland areas. We attempt to create a comprehensive list of Orthopteran species from the Desert National Park (DNP) and its surrounding areas from the Thar Desert landscape of Rajasthan. This area constitutes one of the largest and few protected areas of arid biodiversity in India. In different enclosures of DNP sweep net sampling was done to sample the focal species in different seasons. 24 orthoptera species belonging to 20 genera and 11 subfamilies under 5 families were recorded.
References
Bazelet, C.S. & M.J. Samways (2011). Identifying grasshopper bioindicators for habitat quality assessment of ecological networks. Ecological Indicators 11(5): 1259–1269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2011.01.005
Chand, D.S., S.K. Das, R. Chakraborty & H. Kumar (2024). Checklist of Fauna of India: Arthropoda: Insecta: Orthoptera. Version 1.0. Zoological Survey of India, 29 pp. https://doi.org/10.26515/Fauna/1/2023/Arthropoda:Insecta:Orthoptera
Charan, P.D. & K.C. Sharma (2016). Floral diversity of Thar Desert of western Rajasthan, India. Journal of Phytological Research 29(1 & 2): 55–71.
Cigliano, M.M., H. Braun, D.C. Eades & D. Otte (2024). Orthoptera Species File (version Apr 2024). In: Bánki, O., Y. Roskov, M. Döring, G. Ower, D.R. Hernández Robles, C.A. Plata Corredor, T. Stjernegaard Jeppesen, A. Örn, L. Vandepitte, D. Hobern, P. Schalk, R.E. DeWalt, K. Ma, J. Miller, T. Orrell, R. Aalbu, J. Abbott, R. Adlard & C. Aedo. Catalogue of Life Checklist (Version 2024-04-26). Catalogue of Life. Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dg4lg-388
Dutta, S. & Y.V. Jhala (2021). Devil is in the detail: behaviorally explicit habitat selection by the Critically Endangered great Indian bustard. Endangered Species Research 45: 55–69. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr01126
Dutta, S., A.R. Rahmani & Y.V. Jhala (2010). Running out of time? The Great Indian Bustard Ardeotis nigriceps—status, viability, and conservation strategies. European Journal of Wildlife Research 57(3): 615–625. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-010-0472-z
Islam, M.Z. & A.R. Rahmani (2004). Important Bird Areas in India: Priority Sites for Conservation. Indian Bird Conservation Network: Bombay Natural History Society and BirdLife International (UK), xviii+1133 pp.
Klein, I., N. Oppelt & C. Kuenzer (2021). Application of remote sensing data for locust research and management: a review. Insects 12(3): 233. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12030233
Rathore, N.S. (2004). Conservation Area Series. Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, 19: 1–135.
Roffey, J. & G. Popov (1968). Environmental and behavioural processes in a desert locust outbreak. Nature 219(5153): 446–450.
Rudd, W.G. & R.L. Jensen (1977). Sweep Net and Ground Cloth Sampling for Insects in Soybeans. Journal of Economic Entomology 70(3): 301–304. https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/70.3.301
Sharma, K.K. & S.P. Mehra (2009). The Thar of Rajasthan (India): Ecology and Conservation of a Desert Ecosystem, pp. 1–11. In: Sivaperuman, C., Q.H. Baqri, G. Ramaswamy & M. Naseema (eds.). Faunal Ecology and Conservation of the Great Indian Desert. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, xviii + 222 pp. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87409-6_1
Uvarov, B. (1977). Grasshoppers and Locusts Vol. II. Centre for Overseas Pest Research, London, 613 pp.
White, R., S. Murray & M. Rohweder (2000). Pilot Analysis of Global Ecosystems: Grassland Ecosystems. World Resources Institute, Washington, D.C., 81 pp.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Anshuman Pati, Indranil Paul, Sutirtha Dutta

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors own the copyright to the articles published in JoTT. This is indicated explicitly in each publication. The authors grant permission to the publisher Wildlife Information Liaison Development (WILD) Society to publish the article in the Journal of Threatened Taxa. The authors recognize WILD as the original publisher, and to sell hard copies of the Journal and article to any buyer. JoTT is registered under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY), which allows authors to retain copyright ownership. Under this license the authors allow anyone to download, cite, use the data, modify, reprint, copy and distribute provided the authors and source of publication are credited through appropriate citations (e.g., Son et al. (2016). Bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) of the southeastern Truong Son Mountains, Quang Ngai Province, Vietnam. Journal of Threatened Taxa 8(7): 8953–8969. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.2785.8.7.8953-8969). Users of the data do not require specific permission from the authors or the publisher.





