New Records of Terrestrial Hemiptera Representing Fourteen Families from Betla National Park, Jharkhand, India

Abstract

Terrestrial Hemiptera were surveyed in Betla National Park, Jharkhand, India, to document the diversity and distribution of true bugs within this protected area. Field collections were undertaken during 2021 across selected localities of the park, including Sidhapatch Watch Tower, Garhwa, Manika and Nanndaga, covering pre-monsoon and post-monsoon periods. Specimens were collected using light traps, sweep nets and hand-picking methods to represent taxa occurring in different habitats and microhabitats. The collected material was processed, identified following standard taxonomic procedures and deposited in the National Zoological Collections of the Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata. The study recorded 31 species of terrestrial Hemiptera belonging to 27 genera and 14 families under the suborders Auchenorrhyncha and Heteroptera. All recorded species are reported here as new distributional records for Betla National Park. Coreidae was the most species-rich family, with four species, whereas Cicadellidae, Aphrophoridae, Reduviidae, Rhopalidae and Rhyparochromidae were each represented by three species. Membracidae, Alydidae and Lygaeidae were represented by two species each, while Fulgoridae, Lophopidae, Geocoridae, Largidae and Pyrrhocoridae were represented by a single species each. The records include phytophagous and predatory taxa, indicating the presence of varied feeding guilds within the park. The highest number of species was recorded from the Sidhapatch Watch Tower area. By compiling locality-wise records and family-level representation, the present inventory provides the first consolidated account of terrestrial Hemiptera from Betla National Park. It also adds baseline distributional information for future faunistic, ecological and conservation-oriented studies in Jharkhand and for further documentation of insect diversity in protected forest ecosystems.