RESEARCH ARTICLE ISSN: 2319-6955 A PRELIMINARY STUDY ON THE ODONATE DIVERSITY OF RANDAPUNCHA WETLAND, KULANADA, PATHANAMTHITTA DISTRICT, KERALA SREELEKSHMI S. AND ABHILASH R. Department of Zoology, Christian College, Chengannur, Kerala, India. Correspondence to:
[email protected] Abstract: Dragonflies and Damselflies are among the most attractive creatures on earth belonging to the most popular insect order Odonata .Odonata constitute a small well known order of insects that are widely distributed over the world .A study was carried out to assess the Odonata fauna of Randam Puncha wetland near Kulanada in Pathanamthitta district from the first week of April to second week of June 2016. A total of 18 species of Odonates representing 3 families were recorded from Randam Puncha, Kulanada during the study period. Dragon flies represented by the families Libellulidae and Gomphidae and damsel flies represented by the family Coenagrionidae were observed. Acisoma panorpoides, Aethrimanta brevipennis, Brachydiplax chalybea, Rhyothemis veriegata and Orthetrum sabina were the common dragon flies spotted on the site. On the basis of total number of individuals recorded,Libellulidae was the most dominant family. The Shannon-Weiner diversity index recorded a higher value of 2.405 in Randam Puncha and the Margalef species richness was 2.409. The values of Pielou’s evenness index 0.652 showed medium even distribution of species; the dominance index recorded was 0.895. Even though any rare or endangered species were not recorded in the present study, the Randam Puncha wetland showed rich odonate diversity and abundance. Keywords: Odonata, Dragonfly, Damselfly, Diversity Indices INTRODUCTION species have been reported within the The order Odonata comprising both geographic limits of India so far (Joshi et dragonflies and damselflies are believed to al.,2017).