A new species of Diplatys (Insecta, Dermaptera, Diplatyidae) earwig from the Western Ghats of India

Abstract

To explore diversity of earwigs (Dermaptera) in different agricultural ecosystems of South India, an extensive taxonomic survey was conducted in 2020 during which an undescribed species of Diplatys was collected. Twenty-one species of the genus Diplatys (Diplatyidae, Diplatyinae) have been reported to date from India, of which six species are known from Karnataka, South India. Based on a male specimen collected from a sugarcane field in Karnataka, a new species, Diplatys sahyadriensissp. nov., is described as the twenty-second species of this genus from India. A revised key to the males of Diplatys species from India and Sri Lanka is provided. This new record adds to the known species diversity in the Sahyadri Ranges of the Western Ghats in Shivamogga District, Karnataka, part of the Southern Plateau and Hills agro-climatic region of India.

Time to restart: Study of the Dermaptera of the Indian subcontinent

“…Majority of them are more common in forested slopes of Himalaya, but H. stemmleri Brindle, is sometimes found at higher elevation up to 3100 masl (Srivastava, 1988). Strikingly contrasting to the distribution of Haplodiplatys, the diversity of Diplatys Audinet-Serville (Diplatyidae) is the greatest in peninsular India (Karthik et al, 2022). These examples indicate the relevance of environmental heterogeneity in the Indian subcontinent, from alpine to lowland tropical, as the cause of the total diversity in this region.…”

“…: possibly F. gravelyi Burr) is a possible natural enemy of S. frugiperda (Shylesha et al, 2018;Sharanabasappa et al, 2019). In addition, Karthik et al (2022) discovered a new species of Diplatyidae, Diplatys sahyadriensis Karthik, Kamimura et Kalleshwaraswamy in a sugarcane field in Kartanaka. Although Srivastava published many faunal monographs for each Indian state or nature reserve, no comprehensive review has been published for southern India (Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana states).…”

New state records of some Dermaptera De Geer, 1773 (Insecta) species in India

“…The order Dermaptera is known by approximately 1,900 species distributed over 245 genera and 16 families (Hopkins et al 2017). In India, the order is recorded by 285 species belonging to 72 genera and seven families (Srivastava 1986(Srivastava , 1988(Srivastava , 1989(Srivastava , 1993(Srivastava , 1997(Srivastava , 2003a(Srivastava ,b, 2005a(Srivastava ,b, 2008a(Srivastava ,b, 2013Julka & Purohit 1984;Hegde et al 2015;Deepak & Ghosh 2018;Karthik et al 2022). A recent examination of the unidentified specimens housed in the National Zoological Collection of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) and labeled as collections of different states of India along with respective verbatim data revealed many new distributional records for different states of India.…”