Species diversity of white grubs associated with sugarcane ecosystem of western Uttar Pradesh - A case study

The diversity and abundance of Pleurosticti Scarabaeidae associated with sugarcane crop was monitored and assessed in five districts viz., Hapur, Ghaziabad, Amroha, Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur of western Uttar Pradesh. Adult beetles collected using light traps from June – August during 2013 and 2014 revealed 24 species belonging to Melolonthinae, Rutelinae and Dynastinae of Scarabaeidae. The melolonthine species were the most abundant followed by rutelines. Among the melolonthines, Holotrichia consanguinea Blanchard and H. nagpurensis Khan and Ghai were the predominant species followed by H. serrata (F.) and among the rutelines, Anomala dimidiata (Hope) and A. bengalensis Blanchard were the dominant species followed by A. varicolor Gyllenhal. Their alpha (the mean species diversity at habitat level) diversity assessed through Shannon-wiener’s and Simpson’s indices revealed a rich species diversity in Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar and Hapur districts. The Jaccard coefficient revealed that the fauna of Muzaffarnagar had highest similarity index with those of Amroha and Ghaziabad districts. The diversity in terms of species richness and evenness in the adjacent sugarcane growing areas of western Uttar Pradesh are discussed.