Spatial Distribution Patterns of Orthoptera Fauna in Semiarid Eastern Plain, Rajasthan

The current research has been conducted from March 2021 to February 2023 to investigate the orthopteran species composition, distribution, abundance and diversity across four study sites of semiarid eastern plain of Rajasthan, India. The study was reported with 30 species, belongs to 6 families and 15 subfamilies comprising two suborders, Caelifera (24 species) and Ensifera (6 species). Acrididae family, comprising 60% of orthopteran species, exhibited the highest species richness, dominance, and abundance, followed by Pyrgomorphidae, Tettigoniidae, and Gryllidae. Orthopteran species Hieroglyphus banian (Fabricius, 1798) had shown high abundance at site I (Jaipur) (18.08%) and III (Dausa) (19.98%), while Acheta domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) at site II (Ajmer) (17.95%) and IV (Tonk) (15.94%), respectively. The Shannon wiener diversity index (H`) varied from 2.287 to 2.738, and the species evenness index (J`) varied from 0.5184 to 0.7019. This study compiles the available regional quite well orthopteran faunistic record to serve future research.