Macrobenthic invertebrates community structure of river Tapti, a westerly flowing river in peninsular India

A study was carried out to investigate the macrobenthic invertebrate community structure from the river Tapti from July 2017 to January 2020. A total of 49 taxa belonging to 2 phyla, 5 class, 17 orders, 26 families, and 31 genera were recorded from 13 sites of the river Tapti. Phylum Mollusca (58%) was the most dominant group, followed by Arthropoda (42%) in the community structure. The species Tarebia lineata and Bellamya bengalensis were the most abundant among the Gastropoda, Parreysia favidens and Corbicula striatella among the Bivalvia, and Caenis sp. and Chironomus sp. among the Insecta. The frequency and relative frequency of the species revealed that the most dominant species was Bellamya bengalensis from the class Gastropoda. The data generated in the present study will act as baseline information and would be useful in future studies for interpretation of the health of the Tapti river. Key words River Tapti; Macrobenthic invertebrates; species diversity, India