International Research Journal of Biological Sciences ___________________________________ ISSN 2278-3202Vol. 4(9), 17-27, September (2015) Int. Res. J. Biological Sci. International Science Congress Association 17 Abundance and Diversity of Odonates in Different Habitats of Barpeta District, Assam, India Baruah C.1* and Saikia P.K. Department of Zoology, M.C. College, Barpeta, 781301, Assam, INDIA Gauhati University, Guwahati, Assam 781014, INDIAAvailable online at: www.isca.in, www.isca.me Received 16th June 2015, revised 24th July 2015, accepted 29th August 2015 Abstract A total of 45 species of Odonata including 29 species under 3 families of Anisoptera and 16 species under 3 families of Zygoptera were recorded in four different types of habitats in Barpeta district of Assam during two years (2012 and 2013) of survey. 38 species were recorded from habitats near ponds and rivers, 39 from near beels and 41 species were recorded from open tracts of land. 7 species were recorded from three different types of habitats; 3 species were recorded from two types and 4 species were recorded from two habitat types. 32 species were recorded in all the four habitat types. The most abundant Anisopteran species in ponds was Diplacodes trivalis; in beels and rivers it was Rhyothemis variegate variegate, and Pantala flavescens was most abundant in open tracts. Among the Zygopteran species the most abundant was Ceriagrion coromandelianum in all the habitats. Shannon-Weiner index (H') was 3.323 in ponds , followed by 3.310 in open tracts of land, 3.243 in rivers and 3.305 in Beels or lakes. Margalef’s richness (DMg) index was found to be 6.47 in open tracts; 6.36 in river banks 6.12 in beels and 5.65 in ponds. The Jaccard’s similarity index (C) was 0.88 between beel and river and 0.80 between pond and open tracts. Keywords: Odonata, Anisoptera, Zygoptera, Habitat. Introduction Dragonflies and damselflies are insects which are very ancient and belong to the order Odonata. They are predatory insects and active during daytime The larvae are aquatic while the adults are aerial. The order Odonata are divided into three groups, viz. damselflies (Zygoptera), Anisozygoptera and dragonflies (Anisoptera). Odonates breed and are commonly found near aquatic bodies. During the breeding season, adult males generally establish territories along wetlands, and sexually mature and receptive females visit territories held by males. Their breeding habitats include both flowing and stagnant water bodies. Odonates have specific habitat requirements. They are also sensitive to changes in landscape and are reliable indicators of wetland health. The rural areas have higher species richness as compared to urban areas. Studies on Odonate diversity in the North Eastern part of India are very few. Lahiri reported a total of 33 odonate species from Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Mizoram of North Eastern India. Mitra described the geographical distribution and zoogeography of 148 species from the state of Meghalaya. Seven species were recorded from various study sites at the Gauhati University campus. Majumder, et al reported 10 species of Odonata which accounted for 32.25% species richness in urban lakes of Tripura. Devi, et al. studied the aquatic insect diversity of Loktak Lake, Manipur and found that Odonata represented by two families viz. Libellulidae and Coenagrionidae. Material and Methods Study area: The present investigation was carried out in the district of Barpeta of Assam, India. The Barpeta district extends from 26°45' to 26°49' North latitude and 90°45' to 90°15' East latitude. It is a riverine plain forming a part of the Lower Brahmaputra valley. The District is surrounded by the Bhutan Hills and Bagsa District in the North, Nalbari District in the East, Kamrup and Goalpara district in the South and Bongaigaon and Chirang District in the west.The general Topography of Barpeta District varies from low-lying plains to highland having small-hillocks. The river Brahmaputra and eight tributaries form the main river system of the district. More over there are a large number of lakes (locally called Beels), ponds and fisheries which are habitat of odonates along with other aquatic organisms. The climate of the region is tropical monsoon type. The summer season is form March to May, followed by rainy season from June to September and cool winter from October to February. Sampling: Adult odonates were sampled for a period of two years (2012 and 2013) in five different types of habitats across the study area. Sampling of adult odonates was done on days with fine weather conditions in all the seasons and in all the habitats by moving along a transect. Research Journal of Biological Sciences ___________________________________________________________ ISSN 2278-3202 Vol. 4(9), 17-27, September (2015) Int. Res. J. Biological Sci. International Science Congress Association 18 Figure-1 Map showing Barpeta district with major rivers This method has been widely used for quantitative sampling of Odonates10-13. The species were identified using various literatures2,3,14-18. The abundance is determined by the number of individual encountered during visual surveys along transects. The total number of individuals of each species encountered during the two years of sampling period (January, 2012 to December, 2013) is used for comparing their abundance. The different types of habitat which were surveyed included – Ponds: In the present study, both aquaculture ponds (man managed) and natural ponds which have less human interferences are included in this category. Some of the ponds were permanent or filled with water all the year round while few others dried up during the dry seasons. (b) Beels: Lakes, which are referred herein as beels are large bodies of standing water occupying distinct basins19. These wetlands occur in natural depressions and normally fed by streams and rivers. (c) River banks: These sites were adjacent to flowing rivers. (d) Open land stretch: Sites like agricultural and farm lands which have no permanent water body like ponds, beels or river at least within a range of 200m or more from the transect laid and surveyed are referred herein as open tracts. Some of these sites were plain and covered with shrubs, bushes or tall trees. Agricultural lands like paddy fields, vegetable cultivation or farm lands with plantation are included in this category. Some of these open land stretches remained filled with water during rainy season. As such they also serve as breeding sites for many species of odonates. Data Analysis: Margalef’s richness (DMg) index is used here to determine species richness. If’ is the number of species recorded and ‘’ is the total number of individuals in the sample, the indices are calculated as follows:  \n \r The Shannon-Weiner index (Shannon and Weaver, 1949) is used here to calculate the diversity of species in different habitats. The Shannon-Weiner index (H) is given by the formula as follows:  where‘s’ is the number of species, and ‘p’ is the proportion of individuals of each species belonging to the ‘i’th species of the Research Journal of Biological Sciences ___________________________________________________________ ISSN 2278-3202 Vol. 4(9), 17-27, September (2015) Int. Res. J. Biological Sci. International Science Congress Association 19 total number of individuals. The negative of this sum is taken as the index. The higher the index, the higher is the species diversity. Jaccard’s index (C) was used to calculate the similarity of odonate species between two habitats among the different types of habitats studied. It is given by the following relation:  Where, ‘a’ is the total number of species observed in both the habitats, ‘b’ is the number of species found in the first habitat type but not in the second and ‘c’ is the number of species found in the second habitat type but not in the first. Results and Discussion Abundance: A total of 45 species were recorded during the study (table-1). The suborder Anisoptera is represented by 3 families and 29 species and the suborder Zygoptera by 3 families and 16 species. 38 species were recorded from habitats near ponds and rivers, 39 from near beels and 41 species were recorded from open tracts of land. Ponds are the most abundant habitat with 699 individuals (504 Anisopteran and 195 Zygopteran), followed by beels with 488 individuals (365 Anisopteran and 123 Zygopteran), open tracts of land with 484 (305 Anisopteran and 179 Zygopteran) and rivers with 337 (272 Anisopteran and 65 Zygopteran individuals) was the least abundant. Six species viz. Stylogomphus inglisi, Acisoma panorpoides, Libellago lineata, Aciagrion hisopa, Ceriagrion olivaceum and Mortonagrion aborense were found to be present in three different types of habitats. Three species viz., Gynacanthabainbriggei, Brachydiplaxfarinose and Orthetrumpruinosumneglectum were recorded from two different types of habitats. A total of four species viz., Paragomphus lineatus, Lestespraemorsus, Aciagrionpallidum and Enallagmaparvum were found only in one particular habitat type. Other 32 species were recorded in all the habitat types. The most abundant Anisopteran species were Diplacodes trivalis (in ponds), Rhyothemis variegate variegate (in beels and rivers), and Pantala flavescens(in open tracts). Among the Zygopteran species the most abundant was Ceriagrion coromandelianum in all the habitats. The distribution and abundance of zygoptera species were most affected by reeds20. However, anisoptera species were most affected by shade. The findings herein suggest that open tracts of land, which had only few shady trees, are preferred by zygopteran species of which 14 species were recorded therein. Moreover in addition to shade, perching places are also important in determining the distribution of odonate species. It was found that perch density and variety did not affect dragonfly abundance, but shade alone reduces dragonfly habitat selection21.The results also indicate that ponds are habitated by all the Anisopteran species except the species Stylogomphus inglisi of family Gomphidae. This species is however abundantly found along river banks. The open tracts of land are the habitats which seems to be most preferred by the zygopterans since all the species encountered were present here, whereas five zygopteran species were not found in ponds or rivers and three were absent in beels. It may be for the fact that damselflies prefer shallow water with emergent vegetation into which they oviposit endophytically22, 23. Diversity and similarity index: The Shannon-Weiner index (ponds: H' = 3.323; Open tracts of land: H' = 3.310; rivers: H' = 3.243 and beels or lakes: H' = 3.205) as shown in table-2 does not vary much among the different habitats. Species richness or Margalef’s richness (DMg) index was found to be 6.47 in open tracts, 6.36 in river banks and 6.14 in beels. It was found to be lowest in ponds (5.65). The Jaccard’s similarity index (C) as shown in table-3 was highest (0.88) between beel and river and it was lowest between pond and open tracts of land (0.80). Some zygopteran species Libellago lineata, Aciagrion hisopa, Aciagrion pallidum, Ceriagrion olivaceum, Enallagma parvum, Mortonagrion aborense and Lestes praemorsus were found to have limited distribution as far as the four different types of habitats are concerned. Libellago lineata is a species confined to streams and rivers frequently sits on water plants and overhanging bushes, so during the study this species was commonly found near river but also seen rarely near beels and in open tracts of land. Aciagrion hisopa is found in puddles in grassland and Aciagrion pallidum occurs in small colonies in grasslands much away from water18. Ceriagrion olivaceum an inhabitant of marshy areas was found in all the habitats except beels, Enallagma parvum, which prefers weedy habitats, was recorded in weed covered areas of beels. Mortonagrion aborense is commony found in bushes near marshy and so commonly encountered near beels. Lestes praemorsus prefers seasonal puddles18 and so it was recorded only from open tracts of land where puddles are frequent. The study area may be regarded to have both generalist and habitat specialist species. Most of the species which were found in all the habitats of the study area may be regarded as widespread generalist species. These species were found in the entire lentic ecosystem including open tracts of land where puddles of water are common during rainy seasons. Other species like Libellago lineata, Aciagrion hisopa, Brachydiplax farinosa and Tholymis tillarga which are restricted to a particular habitat may be regarded as habitat specialist24. Some habitat specielist species Stylogomphus inglisi, Libellago lineata and Tholymis tillarga were found to be present in more than one type of habitat. This may be due to the type of vegetation present in the area because the change in marginal vegetation has an influence on the change in dragonfly species composition due to species overlap25. Research Journal of Biological Sciences ___________________________________________________________ ISSN 2278-3202 Vol. 4(9), 17-27, September (2015) Int. Res. J. Biological Sci. International Science Congress Association 20 Table-1 Table showing Odonata species recorded, their abundance, Margalef’s richness (DMg) index and Shannon-Weiner index (H) in different habitats of the study area Suborder Sl. No. Species Number of individuals encountered (abundance) Pond Beel River Open tracts AnisopteraFamily: Aeshnidae 1. Anax guttatus18 17 6 2 2. Gynacantha bainbriggei1 - 4 Family: Gomphidae 3. Ictinogomphus angulosus4 14 15 7 4. Paragomphus lineatus- - - 2 5. Stylogomphus inglisi- 1 5 1 Family: Libellulidae 6. Acisoma panorpoides 1 37 1 - 7. Aethriamanta brevipennis10 34 2 7 8. Brachydiplax chalybea30 3 10 6 9. Brachydiplax farinosa5 - 7 10. Brachydiplax sobrina11 1 5 16 11. Brachythemis contaminata31 12 22 11 12. Bradinopyga geminata4 2 3 6 13. Crocothemis servilia43 32 11 9 14. Diplacodes nebulosa6 6 1 3 15. Diplacodes trivialis 45 11 16 33 16. Neurothemis fulvia21 20 8 28 17. Neurothemis intermedia intermedia 7 12 9 10 18. Orthetrum glaucum1 4 4 8 19. Orthetrum pruinosum neglectum3 2 - - 20. Orthetrum sabina29 23 16 29 21. Pantala flavescens34 30 25 37 22. Potamarcha congener41 9 26 26 23. Rhodothemis rufa 3 5 1 1 24. Rhyothemis variegata variegata24 39 29 19 25. Tholymis tillarga42 9 4 1 26. Tramea basilaris burmeisteri28 16 8 25 27. Trithemis pallidinervis30 5 28 3 28. Urothemis signata signata27 19 12 7 29. Zyxomma petiolatum5 2 1 1 Zygoptera Family: Lestidae 30. Lestes praemorsus- - - 1 Family: Chlorocyphidae 31. Libellago lineata- 1 6 10 Family: Coenagrionidae 32. Aciagrion hisopa - 2 2 2 33. Aciagrion pallidum- - - 2 Research Journal of Biological Sciences ___________________________________________________________ ISSN 2278-3202 Vol. 4(9), 17-27, September (2015) Int. Res. J. Biological Sci. International Science Congress Association 21 34. Agriocnemis lacteola23 2 1 14 35. Agriocnemis pygmaea pygmaea19 1 4 29 36. Ceriagrion cerinorubellum13 15 8 4 37. Ceriagrion coromandelianum59 32 23 46 38. Ceriagrion olivaceum11 - 1 13 39. Enallagma parvum - 4 - - 40. Ischnura aurora13 8 5 16 41. Ischnura forcipata9 6 3 7 42. Mortonagrion aborense 8 18 - 15 43. Onychargia atrocyana9 18 4 8 44. Pseudagrion microcephalum17 7 4 3 45. Pseudagrion rubriceps14 9 4 9 TOTAL 699 488 337 484 3.323 3.205 3.243 3.310 Mg5.65 6.14 6.36 6.47 Table-2 Table showing Jaccard’s similarity index (C) POND BEEL RIVER OT POND 1 0.83 0.85 8.80 BEEL 0.83 1 0.88 0.82 RIVER 0.85 0.88 1 8.84 OT 8.80 0.82 8.84 1 Figure-2 Bar diagram showing Anisopteran and Zygopteran abundance in different habitats 50436527230519512365179100200300400500600PondBeelRiverOpen Tracts Anisoptera Zygoptera Research Journal of Biological Sciences ___________________________________________________________ ISSN 2278-3202 Vol. 4(9), 17-27, September (2015) Int. Res. J. Biological Sci. International Science Congress Association 22 Lowest species richness both in terms of Margalef’s richness (DMg) in case of ponds may be for the fact that most of the ponds are very near to human dwellings where interferrences may be high. (DMg) was highest in open tracts. Ponds mostly consist of mobile and habitat generalist species. Conclusion The results of the investigation indicate that Barpeta district of Assam, India has a rich diversity of Odonata population. The water bodies present in this region are suitable habitats for this fascinating group of insect. The species richness was found to be highest in open tracts of land and lowest in ponds. Further investigations are necessary for utilizing this group of insect as indicator species for the management of various water bodies in the study area. Acknowledgement The authors would like to thank the Department of Zoology, Gauhati University, Guwahati, Assam and the Department of Zoology, M.C. College, Barpeta, Assam for provisions of laboratory facilities during the study.Figure-3 Gynacantha bainbriggei Figure-4 Ictinogomphus angulosus Figure -5 Stylogomphus inglisi Figure-6 Acisoma panorpoides (Male) Figure-7 Aethriamanta brevipennis (Male) Figure-8 Brachydiplax chalybea Research Journal of Biological Sciences ___________________________________________________________ ISSN 2278-3202 Vol. 4(9), 17-27, September (2015) Int. Res. J. Biological Sci. International Science Congress Association 23 Figure-9 Brachydiplax farinose Figure -10 Brachydiplax sobrina (Male) Figure-11 Brachythemis contaminate (Male) Figure-12 Bradinopyga geminate Figure-13 Crocothemis servilia (Male) Figure-14 Diplacodes nebulosa Figure-15 Diplacodes trivialis Figure-16 Neurothemis fulvia (Male) Research Journal of Biological Sciences ___________________________________________________________ ISSN 2278-3202 Vol. 4(9), 17-27, September (2015) Int. Res. J. Biological Sci. International Science Congress Association 24 Figure-17 Neurothemis intermedia intermedia Figure-18 Orthetrum pruinosum neglectum Figure-19 Orthetrum Sabina Figure-20 Pantala flavescens Figure-21 Potamarcha congener (Male) Figure-22 Rhodothemis rufa Figure-23 Tholymis tillarga (Male) Figure-24 Tramea basilaris burmeisteri (Female) Research Journal of Biological Sciences _ _____________________ Vol. 4(9), 17-27, September (2015) International Science Congress Association Figure-25 Zyxomma petiolatum Figure-26 Libellago lineate(Female) Figure-27 Aciagrion hisopa Figure-28 Aciagrion pallidum Sciences _ _____________________ _____________________ ____ International Science Congress Association Zyxomma petiolatum Libellago lineate(Female) Aciagrion pallidum Figure Agriocnemis femina Figure Agriocnemis lacteola Figure Agriocnemis pygmaea Figure Ceriagrion cerinorubellum ____ ____________ ISSN 2278-3202 Int. Res. J. Biological Sci. 25 Figure -29 Agriocnemis femina Figure -30 Agriocnemis lacteola Figure -31 Agriocnemis pygmaea Figure -32 Ceriagrion cerinorubellum Research Journal of Biological Sciences _ _____________________ Vol. 4(9), 17-27, September (2015) International Science Congress Association Figure-33 Ceriagrion olivaceum Figure-34 Enallagma parvum Figure-35 Ischnura aurora Figure-36 Ischnura forcipata Sciences _ _____________________ _____________________ ____ International Science Congress Association olivaceum Enallagma parvum Figure Mortonagrion aborense Figure Onychargia atrocyana (Male) Figure Pseudagrion rubriceps Figure Lestes praemorsus ____ ____________ ISSN 2278-3202 Int. Res. J. Biological Sci. 26 Figure -37 Mortonagrion aborense Figure -38 Onychargia atrocyana (Male) Figure -39 Pseudagrion rubriceps Figure -40 Lestes praemorsus Research Journal of Biological Sciences ___________________________________________________________ ISSN 2278-3202 Vol. 4(9), 17-27, September (2015) Int. Res. J. Biological Sci. International Science Congress Association 27 References 1.Moore N.W.,Dragonflies- Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. IUCN/SSC Odonata Specialist Group, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK, (1997) 2.Subramanian K.A.,Dragonflies of India-A Field Guide. Vigyan PrasarDepartment of Science and Technology. A-50, Institutional Area, Sector-62 NOIDA 201 307 (Uttar Pradesh), India, (2009)3.Andrew R.J., Subramanian K.A. and Tiple A.D., Common Odonates of Central India. 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