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Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Communication A study on the community structure of damselflies (Insecta: Odonata: Zygoptera) in Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India Pathik Kumar Jana, Priyanka Halder Mallick & Tanmay Bhatacharya 26 June 2021 | Vol. 13 | No. 7 | Pages: 18809–18816 DOI: 10.11609/jot.6683.13.7.18809-18816 For Focus, Scope, Aims, and Policies, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/aims_scope For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/policies_various For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. 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Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 June 2021 | 13(7): 18809–18816 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) OPEN ACCESS htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.6683.13.7.18809-18816 #6683 | Received 09 September 2020 | Final received 17 June 2021 | Finally accepted 18 June 2021 COMMUNICATION A study on the community structure of damselfies (Insecta: Odonata: Zygoptera) in Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India Pathik Kumar Jana 1 , Priyanka Halder Mallick 2 & Tanmay Bhatacharya 3 1–3 Department of Zoology, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal 721102, India. 1 [email protected], 2 [email protected] (corresponding author), 3 [email protected] Abstract: For gauging suitability of zygopteran odonates as bioindicators of ecosystems, an atempt was made to record the seasonal diversity of damselfies from seven diferent types of habitats in Paschim Medinipur District, West Bengal covering 14 land use sites. The study revealed existence of 19 species of damselfies belonging to 10 genera under two families. While the riparian zone had maximum number of species (15), paddy feld had the lowest number (six). Ceriagrion coromandelianum and Agriocnemis pygmaea were the most common species. C. coromandelianum was eudominant in grassland and wetland-forest interface, whereas A. pygmaea was eudominant in fsh pond and paddy feld. Six species, viz., Paracercion calamorum, P. malayanum, Pseudagrion australasiae, P. decorum, P. spencei, and P. microcephalum were confned only to the riparian zone. Maximum abundance of damselfies was found in the riparian zone and minimum in the paddy feld. Damselfies exhibited a distnct peak in March–April and a lesser peak in September–October. Most of the land use paterns exhibited similar zygopteran faunal compositon. Species diversity index was moderate (1.4–2.5) and evenness index was on the higher side (0.76–0.94). Dominance Index ranged from 26.2 to 64.6. Riparian zone appeared to be the least stressed and most equitable habitat with highest diversity and evenness index and lowest dominance index. Paddy feld seemed to be the harshest habitat for damselfies with least diversity and highest dominance index. The present study suggests that community analysis of damselfies can be quite useful in the assessment of the quality of any ecosystem. Keywords: Bioindicator, damselfy, dominance index, evenness index, land use type, species diversity index, Zygoptera. Editor: Raymond J. Andrew, Hislop College, Nagpur, India. Date of publicaton: 26 June 2021 (online & print) Citaton: Jana, P.K., P.H. Mallick & T. Bhatacharya (2021). A study on the community structure of damselfies (Insecta: Odonata: Zygoptera) in Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 13(7): 18809–18816. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.6683.13.7.18809-18816 Copyright: © Jana et al. 2021. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: Self-funded. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Author details: Pathik Kumar Jana is working as a research scholar, Centre for Life Sciences, Vidyasagar University, afer completng his MPhil from this University. Dr. Priyanka Halder Mallick, presently in the positon of Associate Professor in Zoology, Vidyasagar University, is a PhD from Vidyasagar University. She is an actve ecologist with research specializatons in freshwater and forest ecology, environment and biodiversity conservaton. Dr. Tanmay Bhattacharya, retred Professor of Zoology, Vidyasagar University is PhD from University of Calcuta. He acted as a coordinator of Environmental Studies, Directorate of Distance Educaton, Vidyasagar University and former member of the Polluton Control Board of Tripura and Wildlife Advisory Board of Tripura. Author contributons: PKJ conducted feld work with regular data collecton, identfcaton and documentaton along with interpretaton of results and preparaton of inital manuscript. PHM has designed and supervised the study with contributon in editng and reviewing the draf artcle and maintaining communicatons. TB has provided inputs in data analysis and interpretaton, revision and write-up of fnal manuscript. Acknowledgements: The frst two authors are thankful to Mr. Prosenjit Dawn for his valuable tps related to feld studies on odonates. The mapping support provided by Mr. Utpal Ghosh is acknowledged. Authors also express their grattude to Vidyasagar University for providing laboratory and library facilites. 18809 J TT Community structure of damselfies Jana et al. INTRODUCTION were lands under paddy cultvaton. Wetland-forest interface were the confuence of homestead vegetaton Sensitvity of damselfies to structural habitat and water bodies. Riparian zone comprised of riverbank features and their amphibious habit makes them well along Kangsabat River. suited as bioindicators of environmental changes (Subramanian et al. 2008; Dolný et al. 2011). In general, Sampling odonates have been popular for monitoring health of Field sampling of adult zygopterans was done wetlands all over the world (Chovanec & Waringer 2001). from March 2018 to February 2019. The sampling and The species assemblages of damselfies are infuenced quanttatve measurements of adult damselfy species by the aquatc and terrestrial vegetaton which act as were carried out at each study site between 0800 h one of the main cues for their habitat choice. Although and 1400 h using line transect method. Transect routes, considerable work has been done on the ecology and distances walked, and duratons were kept constant diversity of odonates in many parts of India, some of the across study sites throughout the survey. All sites were latest ones are those of Baba et al. (2019), D’Souza & Pai surveyed once per month preferably under reasonable (2019), Payra et al. (2020), Bedjanič et al. (2020), and weather conditons, barring a few instances. The Pavithran et al. (2020). prominent features of the study sites were also noted In West Bengal, Odonata fauna has been explored in on the spot. Adult damselfy species were identfed and recent years by Payra & Tiple (2019) & Pahari et al. (2019) photographed in the feld; doubtul specimens were from Purba Medinipur and Nayak (2020) from Asansol– captured using an aerial insect net. Later they were Durgapur industrial area. Despite eforts of Jana et al. identfed by examining the morphological characteristcs (2009), large parts of Paschim Medinipur have remained through a hand lens and were released afer recording. unexplored with respect to odonate distributon and For identfcaton purpose, few damselfies were ecology. In the aforementoned context, the present sacrifced by gently pressing their thorax and kept dry in study was undertaken across diferent habitat structures paper envelope or in 70 % ethanol and were brought to and land use paterns comprising aquatc and semi– the laboratory. The observed and collected species were aquatc water bodies of Paschim Medinipur District. identfed to the lowest possible rank using taxonomic literature and feld identfcaton keys provided by Subramanian (2009), Mitra & Babu (2010), and by METHODS photographic guides from ‘Odonata of India’ website (Anonymous 2020). Updated species names were taken Study area following the Subramanian & Babu (2017). The present study was carried out in fve blocks of Paschim Medinipur District of West Bengal, India namely Data analysis Pingla, Debra, Kharagpur I, Kharagpur II and Midnapore, Important community parameters like abundance, predominantly encompassing freshwater lentc wetlands relatve abundance, Shannon–Wiener diversity index (Figure 1). On the basis of the habitat heterogeneity, (H´) (Shannon & Wiener 1963), evenness index of