Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009:9:46.
doi: 10.1673/031.009.4601.

Seasonality of litter insects and relationship with rainfall in a wet evergreen forest in South Western Ghats

Anto Anu  1 , Thomas K Sabu, P J Vineesh
Affiliations

Seasonality of litter insects and relationship with rainfall in a wet evergreen forest in South Western Ghats

Anto Anu et al. J Insect Sci. 2009.

Abstract

The seasonality of litter insect abundance and its relationship with rainfall was analyzed in a wet evergreen forest on the windward side of south Western Ghats. Monthly litter samples were collected using Berlese funnels during 4 seasons of a year: southwest monsoon season June-August), northeast monsoon season (September-November), summer (March -May) and pre-summer season (December-February). Insect fauna as a whole showed no seasonal variation in abundance, however, some individual insect orders showed significant seasonal variation. Overall insect fauna and individual orders were distributed independently relative to rainfall. All insect orders with the exception of Psocoptera were present during all four seasons. Coleoptera (42%) was the dominant group in all seasons followed by Formicidae (12.3%), insect larvae (10.1%), Collembola (9.2%) and Thysanoptera (8.9%). Exceptionally high abundance of Ptiliidae contributed to the unprecedented abundance of litter Coleoptera. The aseasonality of litter insect fauna as a whole is attributed to year-round availability of rainfall and the absence of severe summer conditions.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
(A) Map of south Western India showing the location of the Western Ghats and (B) study site in the Wayanad region of the Western Ghats
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Rainfall received and litter insect abundance in the evergreen habitat during the study period 2002–03.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Dendrogram based on hierarchical agglomerative clustering (group-linking) of litter insect faunal assemblage at Periya during 4 different seasons of the study period 2002–03.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abensperg-Traun M, De Boer ES. Species abundance and habitat differences in biomass of subterranean termites (Isoptera) in the wheat belt of Western Australia. Australian Journal of Ecology. 1990;15:219–226.
    1. Anu A, Thomas SK. Litter arthropod diversity and community structure in an evergreen forest in the Wayanad region of Western Ghats. Entomon. 2006;31:3181–190.
    1. Anu A. Entomofaunal dynamics and biochemistry of litter decomposition in a natural forest with special reference to the systematics of dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae). Ph.D Dissertation. University of Calicut; Kerala, India: 2006.
    1. Barboni D, Bonnefille R. Precipitation signal in pollen rain from tropical forests, South India. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. 2001;114:239–258. - PubMed
    1. Basset Y. The seasonality of arboreal arthropods foraging within an Australian rainforest tree. Ecological Entomology. 1991;16:265–278.

Publication types