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New records two Carabidae species [Tachys plagiatus Putzeys, 1875 and Tachys tropicus Nietner, 1858 (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Trechinae)] from India with detailed descriptions and notes on their geographical distribution are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Melolonthinae is a subfamily of June beetles and contains many species of agronomic importance in India. It holds major genera like Brahmina (Blanchard 1850), Eotrichia (Medvedev 1951), Holotrichia (Hope 1837) and Sophrops (Fairmaire 1887) in India. A survey based on light trap collection was conducted in the terai foot hills of the Western Himalaya in Uttarakhand to check for the presence of the species. During surveys in the years 2021-22 and 2022-23, various chafer beetles were collected to observe the distribution pattern and their hosts. Among these various species, one beetle species is here reported for the first time i.e., Leucopholis lepidophora Blanchard, 1850, from Uttarakhand, India. This also represents their first record for Western Himalaya. Their habitus and male genitalia are provided herein to aid in identification. A preliminary checklist of Indian Leucopholis is also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Panotrogus Reitter, 1902 is genus of the Melolonthinae tribe Rhizotrogini (Scarabaeidae) that currently contains 21 species and 2 subspecies, of which 14 species have been recorded from Himalaya region of India. A new species Panotrogus jagbiri Kumar, Pandey & Keith, sp. nov. is described from Uttarakhand, India and illustrated. A key to Indian Panotrogus species has been prepared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tribe Rhizotrogini is a tribe of June beetle containing many species of agronomic importance in India. It holds major genera like Brahmina (Blanchard 1851), Eotrichia (Medvedev 1951), Holotrichia (Hope 1837) or Sophrops (Fairmaire 1887) in India. A survey based on light trap collection was conducted in various locations of Uttarakhand to check for the presence of the species. During surveys in the years 2021 and 2022, various chafer beetles were collected to observe the distribution pattern and their hosts. Among these various species, three beetle species are here reported for the first time i.e. Panotrogus expansus Keith, 2003, Panotrogus pakistanus Keith, 2002 and Pseudopanotrogus extrarius Keith, 2005 from Uttarakhand, India. This also represents their first record for India. Their habitus and male genitalia are provided herein to aid in identification. A complete list of species from the Himalayan region is also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper, we report the presence of 503 species of moths (343 identified to species, 160 identified to genus) that belong to 371 genera under 42 families. The study was conducted at Kavvai River basin, northern Kerala, India for three years from 2015 to 2017. Traditional light trapping method was employed to collect the moths during the night. Among the families reported, Erebidae was the most dominant family followed by Crambidae, Geometridae, Noctuidae, and Pyraliade. The study highlights the significance of the riverbasin in conserving rich diversity of invertebrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light trap has often been used in the ecological studies of lepidopteran insect pests in agroecosystems. However, the light trap in Indian agricultural systems is rarely adopted either to monitor the population size or to study the migration of moth pests. In the present study, we have installed light traps in shaded and unshaded tea plantations of North East (NE) India to study (1) the species composition, (2) effect of shade on moth pests, (3) seasonality of major pests and (4) to learn the sex proportion of major pests captured in light traps. The two-year catches in light traps suggested that Hyposidra talaca (Geometridae) is a major pest of tea in NE India. It peaks in number during winter months, with relatively few moths caught in the later parts of the year. Eterutia magnifera (Zygaenidae) is the second major pest of tea that peaks in number during summer months. Hyposidra infixaria, Buzura suppressaria, Ectropis obliqua, Ascotis sp. (all Geometridae) and Arctornis submarginata (Lymantridae) were caught in the light traps, but in low numbers. The catches also suggested that shade status has an important role on moth pest population in tea agroecosystems; shaded plantations received significantly higher number of moths of all major pests. The difference in the catches of H. talaca moths was significant among years. Pair-wise analysis suggests that the difference in the catches of H. talaca in corresponding standard meteorological weeks (SMWs) of two years was not significant for most of the SMWs, which confirms the inter-annual consistency in the life cycle and generations. Male moths constitute more than 77% of the overall catches of H. talaca. Overall, our results highlight that light trap is an effective, bias-free monitoring tool of moth pests of tea, which also captures the variability due to habitat type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]