Odonate Insects in and around Village Pond Ecosystem of Paschimpara, Hooghly District, West Bengal

Abstract

Odonates, commonly known as dragonflies and damselflies, are one of the most common insects flying over ponds and rivers. Their larval stages mainly inhabit top soft layer of bottom soil/humus near littoral zone of aquatic ecosystem but they also inhabit attached to submerged macrophytes. In the present paper some selected ponds of Paschimpara village under Goghat-II Panchayat , Arambagh Sub-division of Hooghly district, West Bengal were brought under study. In all, nine species were observed and studied. These belong to the Suborder Anisoptera (Dragonflies) and Suborder Zygoptera (Damselflies) as follows : Suborder Anisoptera (7 species under the family Libellulidae) - Brachythemis contaminata (Fabricius, 1793), Brachydiplax sobrina (Rambur, 1842), Crocothemis servilla servilla (Drury, 1770), Diplocodes trivialis (Rambur, 1842), Orthetrum pruinosum (Rambur, 1842) and Rhyothemis variegata (Linnaeus, 1763) and Suborder Zygoptera (2 species under the family Coenagrionidae) - Ceriagrion olivaceum (Laidlow, 1914) and Agriocnemis spelendidissima (Laidlow, 1919). Habitat ecology of these odonate insects are highlighted herein.