Coleoptera (Insecta) fauna from the Indian Thar Desert, Rajasthan

The order Coleoptera includes 3,50,000 species, amongst which, about 1,50,88 species are known from Indian region.Roonwal (1983) and Ghosh et al. (1996) provided significant information on geographical distribution of insect species in the Thar Desert.Saha (1979) gave an excellent review on the taxonomy and distribution of the Indian blister beetles (Meloidea) and also included a few species from his study in the Thar Desert.Tak and Sewak (1987) and Tak (1996) reported 27 species of aquatic beetles from Jodhpur and Sikar districts belonging to families Haliplidae, Gyrinidae, Dytiscidae and Hydrophilidae which have been included to prepare this checklist.Tandon (1996) reported 34 species, and identified gaps in research on the distribution of coleopteran species from the Thar Desert of Rajasthan.In view of filling the gaps in our knowledge on the fauna of Thar Desert, Rajasthan, the present study was initiated under a research project entitled "Studies on faunal diversity in the Thar desert of Rajasthan" sanctioned by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, New Delhi, at Zoological Survey of India, Desert Regional Station, Jodhpur.In this paper we have reported 99 species belonging to 60 genera under 13 families of Coleoptera from Thar desert of Rajasthan during May, 2000-June 2003.Besides, eight specimens have been identified up to generic level.Majority of the specimens were collected during the day from agricultural as well as barren lands or sand dune areas by the free sweeping method.However, some groups of insects were collected during night with the help of screen light trap with a strong source of white light (Sengupta & Mukhopathyay, 1990).All the specimens are deposited in the National Zoological Collection, Desert Regional Station, Zoological Survey of India, Jodhpur.This checklist covers all the districts of the Thar Desert.In Ganganagar, Hanumangarh, part of Bikaner and Jaisalmer the crop pattern has entirely changed during the last two decades due to the Indira Gandhi canal.