The Journal of Zoology Studies
Vol. 2 No. 6 2015 Journalofzoology.com
Page 1
The Journal of Zoology Studies 2015; 2(6): 01-05
ISSN 2348-5914
JOZS 2015; 2(6): 01-05
JOZS © 2015
Received: 07-01-2016
Accepted: 19-01-2016
Suresh Kr. Shah
Assistant Zoologist
Zoological Survey of India
Kolkata,
India
Bulganin Mitra
Scientist – C
Zoological Survey of India
Kolkata,
India
Corresponding Author:
Suresh Kr. Shah
Assistant Zoologist
Zoological Survey of India
Kolkata,
India
Moth (Insecta: Lepidoptera) Fauna and their Insect Predators
Associated with the Tea gardens and the surrounding Natural
Ecosystem Environs in Northern West Bengal, India
Author: Suresh Kr. Shah and Bulganin Mitra
Abstract
Regular field surveys were conducted in 25 tea gardens and its surrounding natural habitats of
Dooars region and Darjeeling district of Northern West Bengal from 2011 to 2014 to explore the
moth fauna and their potential insect predators from these regions. The adult moths were
collected in the night and day using light trap and butterfly nets respectively. The study revealed
the occurrence of 39 species of moths. Of them, 15 species were found as recognised pests of
tea and 12 species were found pests of other crops and vegetables. The species of dragonfly
Orthetrum sabina Drury and the species of true fly Microstyllum pseudoananta krishnanii
Joseph & Parui were observed as potential predators of these moths in tea gardens.
Keywords: Tea gardens, Moth, Predators, Dragonfly, True fly
1. Introduction
Tea (Camelia sinensis Linnaeus) is a perennial cash crop which is grown in Dooars region and
on the hill slopes of Darjeeling district of Northern West Bengal, India. A variety of crops and
vegetables are cultivated here on forest lands altered into agricultural lands. The tea plantations
in these regions are intermixed with shade trees, natural forests, grasslands, agriculture lands
and human habitations. Tea plantations along with other surrounding natural habitats constitute
an ecosystem environ which support the flourishing life of wide variety of insects including
moths (Insecta: Lepidoptera).
Moths (Insecta: Lepidoptera) are commonly nocturnal, holometabolous and phytophagous
insects. They occur in all kinds of habitats including natural forests, grasslands, agro-
horticulture fields and crop plantations. The moths provide valuable ecosystem services such as
pollination of crepuscular and night blooming flowering plants and their role as prey in food
chain. These insects are often considered as bio- indicator material in biological studies because
they are sensitive to habitat change. Being primary herbivorous insects, they help in natural
control of weeds in an agro-ecosystem. The larvae of moths are active devourer of the tender
parts of host plants hence, they are often recognised as pests of variety of crops, vegetables and
forest plantations and hence they are treated as economically important insects.
The Journal of Zoology Studies
Vol. 2 No. 6 2015 Journalofzoology.com
Page 2
In the state of West Bengal 580 species of moths are
known to occur [1]
but the information on moth fauna
from tea gardens and its surrounding habitats has not
yet been documented. Therefore, the present study was
undertaken with the objective to inventories the species
of moths and to identify their potential insect predators
from the tea gardens and habitats in its close proximity
of Northern West Bengal.
2. Study Area
The Dooars region is constituted by whole of Jalpaiguri
district and Alipurduar district and northern region of
Cooch Behar district and hill slopes of Darjeeling
district. The Dooars region is subdivided in to Western
Dooars, Central Dooars and Eastern Dooars (Fig. 1).
The region is bounded in the north by Bhutan and the
district of Darjeeling, in the south by the district of
Rangpur of Bangladesh and the district of Cooch
Behar, in the west by the district of Darjeeling and
Bangladesh and on the east by the part of the district of
Goalpara in Assam and the right bank of river Sankosh
from the demarcation line. The land of Dooars is very
much fertile. The major rivers flowing in these areas
are Teesta, Jaldhaka, Murti, Torsa, Sankosh, Dyna,
Raidak and Kaljani.
Fig 1: Map of Dooars region
3. Material and methods
The field surveys were carried out during 2011-2014 in
25 tea gardens and its nearby habitats (Table 2) of
Dooars region and Darjeeling district. Butterfly
catching nets were used for collecting adult specimens
at day between 9.00 AM to 11.00 AM and 3.00 PM to
5.00 PM. At night the collections were done by
operating light trap (23 watt Philips CFL bulbs)
between 6.00 PM to 9.00 PM. The moths were
photographed by using Nikon D7000 camera. The
collected specimens were pinned and mounted
following the methods described by Arora (1990) [2]
and Srivastava (1990) [3]
. For the identification of
species standard literatures (Hampson, 1892, 1894,
1895 and 1896) [4]
have been followed and wherever
found necessary, the specimens were also compared
with National Zoological Collections (NZC) of
Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata. For studying the
occurrence of insect predators of moths in tea gardens
direct field observation method was applied. The
predator insects were identified by comparing with the
specimens kept in NZC.
4. Results and Discussion
A total of 39 species belonging to 35 genera under 6
families (Table 1) of moths were recorded from 25 tea
gardens of Dooars and Darjeeling hills. The family
Erebidae was found dominant with highest number of
species (14 species) followed by Crambidae (9
species), Geometridae (8 species), Sphingidae (4
species), Zygaenidae (3 species) and Tortricidae being
found least dominant with only one species. Of them,
15 species marked with * (Table 1) were found as
known pests of tea and 12 species marked with #
(Table 1) as known pests of other crops, vegetables and
natural forests.
The Journal of Zoology Studies
Vol. 2 No. 6 2015 Journalofzoology.com
Page 3
Table 1: List of Moths recorded from tea gardens and adjacent habitats
Order Lepidoptera
Suborder Heterocera (Moth)
Family SPHINGIDAE 1. Theretra nessus Drury, 1773
2. Hippotion boerhaviae (Fabricius, 1775)
3. Argius convolvuli (Linnaeus, 1758)
4. Acosmeryx omissa Rothschild and Jordan, 1903
Family EREBIDAE 5. Chionaema bianca (Walker, 1856)
6. *Creatonotos transiens (Walker, 1855)
7. #Creatonotos gangis (Linnaeus, 1763)
8. *Nyctemera adversata Schaller, 1788
9. *Argina argus (Kollar, 1844)
10. #Argiina astrea (Drury, 1777)
11. *Arctornis submarginata Walker, 1885
12. *Somena scintillans (Walker, 1856)
13. *Orgyia sp.
14. Miltochrista cuneonotata (Walker, 1855)
15. *Lymantria marginalis (Walker, 1862)
16. Asota egens (Walker, 1854)
17. #Arna bipunctapex Hampson, 1891
18. Callimorpha plagiata Walker,1855
Family ZYGAENIDAE 19. *Eterusia aedea aedea Linnaeus, 1763
20. *Eterusia edcola Doubleday, 1847
21. *Trypanophra semihyalina Kollar, 1844
Family GEOMETRIDAE 22. *Ascotis selenaria (Denis & Schiffermiller, 1775)
23. *Biston suppressaria (Guenee, 1858)
24. *Hyposidra talaca Walker, 1860
25. *Hyposidra infixaria Walker, 1860
26. *Ectropis sp.
27. Cleora sp.
28. Petelia sp.
29. Semiothisa eleonora (Villers, 1789)
Family CRAMBIDAE 30. Diaphania sp.
31. #Omiodes surrectalis (Walker, 1866)
32. #Arthroschista hilaralis (Walker, 1859)
33. #Glyphodes stolalis Guenee, 1854
34. #Parotis marginata (Hampson, 1893)
35. #Herpetogramma licarsisalis ( Walker,1859)
36. #Cnaphalocrocis poeyalis ( Boisduval,1833)
37. #Nosophora semitritalis ( Lederer,1863)
38. #Eoophyla sejuncta ( Snellen 1876 )
Family TORTRICIDAE 39. #Loboschiza sp.
Table 2: Tea gardens surveyed during the study period
Sl. No. Name of Tea gardens Survey site
1. Soongachi Roadside
2. Guyabari Agro-forest
3. Toorsa River
4. Nagrakata Forest
5. Rangamutti Agriculture field
6. Longview Forest
7. Kalchini Forest
8. Radharani Agriculture field
9. Tingling Roadside
10. Damdim Roadside
11. Betguri Roadside
12. Batabari Forest
13. Kailashpur Forest & Agriculture field
14. Killcott Forest
15. Chuapara Forest
16. Atiapara Forest
17. Anandapur Forest
18. Marionbari Agriculture field
19. Grassmore Roadside
20. Pathkapara Forest
21. Mohua River
22. Dalsingpara Agriculture field
23. Malnadi Agriculture field & River
24. Srinathpur Agriculture field & Village
25. Bharnobari Roadside
The Journal of Zoology Studies
Vol. 2 No. 6 2015 Journalofzoology.com
Page 4
The species of the dragonfly Orthetrum sabina Drury
(Odonata: Libellulidae) was observed as a potential
predator of common moth pests of the families
Erebidae (Lymantria sp.) (Plate 1, Fig. 2) and
Geometridae (Petelia sp. and Hyposidra talaca
Walker) (Plate 1, Fig. 3). The species Microstyllum
pseudoanantakrishnanii Joseph & Parui (Diptera:
Asilidae) (Plate 1, Fig. 4) was also observed as a
predator of Hyposidra talaca Walker (Plate 1, Fig. 5), a
common looper pest in tea plantations.
Plate 1
Fig 2 Fig 3
Fig 4 Fig 5
From the above results it is obvious that the species
composition in tea gardens of Northern West Bengal
constituted approximately seven percent of entire moth
fauna of West Bengal. Each of the families Crambidae
and Geometridae could attain fifty percent of the
number of species of the most dominant family
Erebidae. Hitherto, seventy four species of moth have
been recorded as pests from the tea gardens of North-
East India including Dooars and Darjeeling [5]
. Of
these, six species namely Eterusia aedea aedea
Linnaeus, Eterusia edcola Doubleday, Trypanophora
semihyalana Kollar, Biston suppressaria Guenee,
Orgyia sp., Arctornis submarginata Walker were
collected during the present study. The species Somena
scintillans (Walker) is reported as minor pest of tea [6]
.
The tea loopers Ectropis sp. and Ascotis sp. are known
tea pests from North- East India [7]
. The above three
species were also collected during the present study.
Being intermixed with other natural ecosystem
environs the tea gardens provide a perfect habitat for
other predator insects to flourish their lives. Up till
now, fifty four species of such insect predators have
been documented from tea gardens of Northern West
Bengal [8]
.
Of them, four species are dragonflies
(Odonata) and only one species is true fly (Diptera).
But the species Orthetrum sabina Drury (Odonata:
Libellulidae) and the species Microstyllum
The Journal of Zoology Studies
Vol. 2 No. 6 2015 Journalofzoology.com
Page 5
pseudoanantakrishnanii Joseph & Parui (Diptera:
Asilidae) were not reported. During the present study
these two insect species were recorded as potential
predator of the adult species of moths in tea gardens.
It is a well-known fact that the insect pest and predator
complex within a habitat or region might undergo
dynamic changes over space and time [8]
. Hence
periodic investigation of pests and their natural
predators is always needed. In the present work the
above mentioned two predator insects have been
discovered from tea gardens of Northern West Bengal
after span of five years from the last published record [8]
.
5. Conclusions
Hence it can be concluded that the tea gardens and its
surrounding natural ecosystem environs are suitable
habitats for moths and their predator insects to thrive
which are valuable biological materials for providing
various ecosystem services.
6. Acknowledgements
The Authors are deeply grateful to the Director, Dr. K.
Chandra, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, for
providing necessary facilities and encouragement to
carry out the work. We also thank to all the Tea estate
Managers who provided their help and co-operations
during field surveys.
7. References 1. Sanyal AK, Alfred JRB, Venkataraman K,
Tewari SK and Mitra S. Lepidotera. In: Status
of Biodiversity of West Bengal. Published by
the Director Zoological Survey of India,
Kolkata; 2012, 767-801.
2. Arora GS. Lepidoptera. In: Collection and
Preservation of Animals. Edited and
Published by the Direcor, Zoological Survey
of India, Kolkata; 1990, 131-137.
3. Srivastava VD. Odonota. In: Collection and
Preservation of Animals. Edited and
Published by the Direcor, Zoological Survey
of India, Kolkata; 1990, 95-96.
4. Hampson GF. Fauna of British India
including Ceylon and Burma (Moths), Taylor
& Francis, London; 1892 & 1894-1896, Vol.
I-IV.
5. Anonymous. Pests of tea in North- East India
and their control. Published by Tocklai
Experimental Station, Tea Research
Association, Jorhat, Assam, India; 1994,
Memorandum No. 27.
6. Biswas O, Shah SK, Mishra P, Mallick K and
Mitra B. Taxonomic account of Erebidae
(Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea) pests of Tea
gardens of West Bengal, India. J. Ento. and
Zool. Studies; 2015, 3 (5): 185-192.
7. Sinu AP, Mandal P, Banerjee D, Mallick S,
Talukdar T. and Pathak SK. Moth Pests
collected in light traps of tea plantations in
North East India: species composition,
seasonality and effect of habitat type. Current
Science; 2013, 104 (5): 646- 651.
8. Das S, Roy S and Mukhopadhyay A.
Diversity of arthropod natural enemies in the
tea plantations of North Bengal with emphasis
on their association with tea pests. Current
Science; 2010, 99 (10): 1457- 1463.
Shah SK, Mitra B. Moth (Insecta: Lepidoptera) Fauna and their Insect Predators Associated with the Tea gardens and the surrounding Natural
Ecosystem Environs in Northern West Bengal, India. Journal of Zoology Studies. 2015; 2(6):01-05.
*****************************************************************
