Diversity of Saurian Fauna in the Buldhana District, Maharashtra, India

Journal of Asia-Paciﬁc Biodiversity xxx (2016) 1e6

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Original article Diversity of Saurian fauna in the Buldhana district, Maharashtra, India

Prasanna S. Joshi*, Vasudha T. Tantarpale

Post Graduate Department of Zoology, Vidya Bharti Mahavidyalaya, Amravati, Maharashtra, India article info abstract

Article history: The present report provides knowledge about the diversity of Saurian fauna in the Buldhana district of the Received 19 October 2015 Indian state of Maharashtra as a model geographic area to promote conservation management. The pre- Received in revised form sented study is based on the ﬁeld work carried out in the study sites during February 2014 to January 2015. 26 February 2016 The study revealed the presence of 14 Saurian species belonging to 5 families dominated by Gekkonidae Accepted 16 March 2016 (43.05%), Scincidae (29.15%), Agamidae (21.35%), Varanidae (6.1%), and Chamaeleonidae (0.35%). The Available online xxx relative dominance of species varied with different months, apparently indicating that the Buldhana district has a healthy environmental and demographic setup that accommodates rich Saurian diversity. Keywords: Ó Buldhana Copyright 2016, National Science Museum of Korea (NSMK) and Korea National Arboretum (KNA). India Production and hosting by Elsevier. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http:// Maharashtra creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Saurian fauna

Introduction greater variations than any other group of reptiles (Smith 1935). Lizards are members of the suborder Sauria which is one of the two The biological diversity of the earth and its origins has long been suborders of the order Squamata (Class: Reptilia). They are poiki- a source of amazement and curiosity (Tantarpale 2015). The study lothermous, insectivorous, and oviparous to ovoviviparous of biological diversity encompasses both the intrinsic and anthro- (Matthew 2007). Presently, lizards are one of the most diversiﬁed pocentric values associated with it. The values of the biological groups of vertebrates that have ever lived on earth over the past elements are recognized in correspondence to the perceived 250 million years. Over 5,000 species of lizards have lived on earth, importance by the human being, which is realized in terms of the inhabiting a variety of habitats ranging from the highest moun- ecosystem services (Daily 1997; Baumgartner 2007). Biological di- tainous peak to the low-lying terrestrial and aquatic habitats versity is the base for upholding the ecosystems and the functional (Lalrinchhana et al 2015). South Asia, including the Indian sub- aspects of the species that provide goods and services for human continent, is the home for herpetological diversities in the tropical well-being. Monitoring of species diversity of a region enables region with India harboring 228 Saurian species in different bio- estimation of the prospective functional roles of the species. In any physical zones (Venugopal 2010). ecosystems, monitoring species diversity can be used as a tool to In this context, the conservation of lizards is necessary to sustain reduce human mismanagement and pollution in urbanized, in- varied kinds of ecosystem services for human well-being. In view of dustrial, rural, and other managed areas (Wilson 1997). Extending the essential ecosystem services rendered by lizards and to pro- this view, studies on species diversity in any ecosystems are mote conservation management, the present study was aimed at necessary to understand the effect of anthropocentric development the estimation of the saurian diversity in the Buldhana District, on the integrity and sustenance of an ecosystem. Maharashtra, India. The results of the study are expected to sup- The diversity of reptiles has been emphasized in many studies plement the necessary information on the conservation manage- owing to their dominance in the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems ment and enhance the ecological roles of the saurian species in the and provision of ecosystem services such as pest control and Buldhana District and similar geographical regions. ecological maintenance (Joshi 2014). Among reptiles, saurian fauna is a diverse group that changes from the primitive to the special- ized, phylogenetically, and their structural modiﬁcations exhibit Materials and methods

Study area * Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (P.S. Joshi). ﬁ Peer review under responsibility of National Science Museum of Korea (NSMK) and The Buldhana district (Figure 1) is one of the most diversi ed Korea National Arboretum (KNA). regions in Maharashtra State of India, with respect to biodiversity. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.japb.2016.03.012 pISSN2287-884X eISSN2287-9544/Copyright Ó 2016, National Science Museum of Korea (NSMK) and Korea National Arboretum (KNA). Production and hosting by Elsevier. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Figure 1. Buldhana District, Maharashtra, India.

Table 1. Diversity of Saurian fauna during February 2014 to January 2015 in the Buldhana district, Maharashtra, India.

Family Scientiﬁc name Common name No. of IUCN Local individuals national status

Agamidae Calotes versicolor Indian garden lizard 42 NE Abundant (Daudin, 1803) Calotes rouxii Indian forest lizards 16 NT Occasional (Dumeril and Bibron, 1844) Psammophilus blanfordanus Blanford’s rock agama 5 NE Rare (Stoliczka, 1871) Chamaeleonidae Chamaeleo zeylanicus Indian Chamaeleon 01 NE Rare (Stoliczka, 1872) Gekkonidae Hemidactylus brookii Brook’s house gecko 12 LC Rare (Gray, 1930) Hemidactylus ﬂaviviridis Yellow-green House Gecko 35 LC Common (Murray, 1886) Hemidactylus frenatus Asian house gecko 25 LC Frequent (Dumeril and Bibron, 1844) Hemidactylus giganteus Giant Indian gecko 03 NE Occasional (Stoliczka, 1871) Hemidactylus leschenaultii Common bark gecko 42 LC Abundant (Dumeril and Bibron, 1844) Hemidactylus triedrus Termite hill gecko 10 NT Rare (Daudin, 1802) Scincidae Eutropis carinata Keeled grass skink 34 NT Common (Schneider, 1799) Eutropis macularia Bronze grass skink 40 LC Abundant (Blyth, 1853) Lygosoma punctatus Spotted supple skink 12 NT Rare (Gmelin, 1799) Varanidae Varanus bengalensis Bengal monitor lizard 18 VU Frequent (Daudin, 1803)

LC ¼ least concern; NE ¼ not evaluated; NT ¼ nearly threatened; VU ¼ vulnerable.

Its healthy climate, mountainous terrain, rugged configuration, and daily maximum temperature was 42.3C and the minimum was sudden fall in elevation are phenomenal (Joshi et al 2015). It is in 27.4C, and it decreased toward winter with a mean daily the Amravati division of Maharashtra state in Western India. It is maximum temperature of 27.6C and a minimum of 15.1C situated at the westernmost border of the Vidarbha region of (Buldhana Gazetteer 2015). Maharashtra, and is 500 km from the state capital, Mumbai. It lies 0 0 0 0 between 19 51 N and 21 17 N latitude and 75 57 E and 76 59 E Survey methods longitude. It has a total area of 9,745 km2 (3,761 square miles). The climatic condition of this district is characterized by a hot summer, The present study is based on the field work carried out in the well-distributed rainfall during the south-west monsoon season, study sites during February 2014 to January 2015. During the sur- and generally dry weather during the rest of the year. The cold vey, an efficient protocol was adopted. The survey was made using a season is from December to February. The average annual rainfall in “visual encounter survey” method (Doan 2003)aswellasby the district is 796.6 mm (31.37 inches). During summer, the mean employing randomized walking (Whitaker 2006). The selected area

Relative dominance of species 0123456789101112131415 Calotes versicolor Hemidactylus leschenaultii Eutropis macularia Hemidactylus flaviviridis Eutropis carinata Hemidactylus frenatus Varanus bengalensis Calotes rouxii Hemidactylus brookii Lygosoma punctatus Hemidactylus triedrus Hemidactylus giganteus Psammophilus blanfordanus Chamaeoleo zeylanicus

Figure 2. Relative abundance of saurian species in the Buldhana district, Maharashtra, India.

Relative occurrence of families 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Gekkonidae

Scincidae

Agamidae

Varanidae

Chamaeleonidae

Figure 3. Relative dominance of saurian families in the Buldhana district, Maharashtra, India. was randomly explored on the basis of habitat structure and the each encountered species was categorized on the basis of Molur possibility of availability of species. et al (1998), Kumbhar et al (2013), and Alexandar and Jayakumar (2014). Species identification Data analysis After detection, a specimen was identified with the help of visible structural features. For identification and comparative Species occurrence analysis was carried out by using the studies of observed specimens, keys and methods suggested by following formulas. Relative dominance (RD) of species was Daniel (2002), Das (2002), and Ahmed et al (2009) were adopted. calculated as [RD ¼ Ni 100/Nt], where Ni is the number of in- The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) status of dividuals of species and Nt is the total number of individuals of all

Figure 4. Dendrogram showing similarity in number of saurian species composition among the studied month during February 2014 to January 2015.

Please cite this article in press as: Joshi PS, Tantarpale VT, Diversity of Saurian fauna in the Buldhana district, Maharashtra, India, Journal of Asia- Pacific Biodiversity (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.japb.2016.03.012 PS Joshi, VT Tantarpale / Journal of Asia-Pacific Biodiversity xxx (2016) 1e6 5 species (Basavarajappa 2006; Joshi 2014). Relative occurrence (RO) The differences between the diversity and evenness indices of the family was calculated as [RO ¼ Ns 100/Nt] where Ns is the among different study months were statistically analyzed using number of species of each family and Nt is the total number of all analysis of variance. The statistical analyses were performed species (Basavarajappa 2006; Joshi 2014). Mean percent occurrence following Zar (1999) using the SPSS version 10 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, (M%) for a month was calculated as [M% ¼ Nm 100/Nt] where Nm IL, USA; Kinnear and Gray 2000). is the number of individuals in each month and Nt is the total number of individuals during the complete study tenure (Basavarajappa 2006; Joshi 2014). The mean values of the pooled Results species occurrence data were used to calculate the monthly diversity of and to categorize the local status of species. During the study, a total of 295 individuals of 14 saurian species The diversity assessment enabled highlighting the observed belonging to 5 families were identified (Table 1). From the observed species richness pattern of the saurian species. The diversity indices species, 3 were abundant, 2 were common, 2 were frequent, 2 were were quantified with the help of PAST Version 1.60 software occasional, and 5 were rare. The maximum abundance was shown (Palaeontological Asso., Norway; Hammer et al 2001). The species by Calotes versicolor followed by Hemidactylus leschenaultii and diversity was calculated using the Shannon diversity index that P Eutropis macularia, while Chamaeleo zeylanicus was the most rarely calculated ½H0 ¼ R Pi log Pi, where Pi is the proportion of the i ¼ 1 observed with least abundance (Figure 2). During the study, the first species which is given by Pi ¼ ni/N, where ni is number of in- Gekkonidae family was observed to be more dominant over the dividual in particular month and N is total number of species; species Scincidae, Agamidae, Varanidae, and Chamaeleonidae families richness was obtained by using the Margalef equation [R ¼ (S-1)/log (Figure 3). N], where R is the index of species richness, S is total number of A monthly comparison of saurian species occurrence showed species and N is the total number of individuals (Magurran 1988); the highest number of species during June to September and the while species equitability was determined by the equation of Pielou lowest during February to May. A dendrogram developed by [J ¼ N /N ] where N is the number of abundant species in the 1 0 1 Euclidean distance cluster analysis was observed to be multifaceted sample and N is the number of species in the sample (Hammer et al 0 and showed variation in the level of similarity in the number of 2001). The similarity association matrix upon which the cluster was saurian species in 12 months. The months with the minimum to based was computed using the nearest neighbor pair linkage algo- moderate number of species belong to one cluster, whereas the rest rithm of Euclidean distance index for the presence and absence data of the months with moderate to maximum number of species (Hammer et al 2001). formed another cluster (Figure 4).

Mean % abundance Shannon diversity Feb Feb 15 2.5 Jan Mar Jan Mar 2 10 1.5 Dec Apr Dec Apr 5 1 0.5 Nov 0 May Nov 0 May

Oct Jun Oct Jun

Sep Jul Sep Jul Aug Aug

Species richness Equitability Feb Feb 3 1 Jan Mar Jan Mar 2.5 0.95 2 0.9 Dec 1.5 Apr Dec Apr 0.85 1 0.5 0.8 Nov 0 May Nov 0.75 May

Oct Jun Oct Jun

Sep Jul Sep Jul Aug Aug

Figure 5. The values of the diversity indices in different months observed through the random sampling of the Saurian fauna in the Buldhana District, Maharashtra, India.

A monthly comparison of species diversity attributed to saurian Acknowledgments fauna in the studied area revealed that faunal diversity was highest during June to September while lowest during February to May. The authors are thankful to Dr K.M. Kulkarni, Former Vice Mean percent abundance of saurian fauna was significantly Chancellor (Swami Ramanand Tirtha Marathwada University, different (F ¼ 30.314, df ¼ 11, p < 0.05); Shannon diversity values of Nanded, India) and Former Director (Higher Education, Govern- saurian fauna were significantly different (F ¼ 9.813, df ¼ 11, ment of Maharashtra, Pune, India) for erudite guidance during p < 0.05); species evenness among different months was signifi- conduct of this study. cantly different (F ¼ 16.824, df ¼ 11, p < 0.05) while species richness among the study months was not significantly different (F ¼ 1.526, df ¼ 11, p > 0.05) showing a contradictory pattern. 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