Species diversity, abundance, and distributional status of Orthoptera in the Aravalli Forest range, Rajasthan, India

The present study provides the first record of the species diversity, occurrence, abundance, species richness, and distributional status of the orthopteran fauna in the Aravalli Range, Jaipur, Rajasthan. Two reserve forests, Jhalana Reserve and Galta Forest, Jaipur, were surveyed during the period 2021–2022, resulting in the collection of 611 orthopteran specimens belonging to 29 species of 25 genera, 14 subfamilies, and 6 families of 2 suborders. The family Acrididae was reported as most dominant with 18 species of 15 genera, followed by Pyrgomorphidae (5 species of 4 genera), Gryllidae (2 species of 2 genera), and Tettigoniidae (2 species of 2 genera), while Tetrigidae and Gryllotalpidae were recorded as least dominant with only 1 species each. In the account of species abundance, the family Acrididae was the most dominant, recorded with 412 specimens, followed by Pyrgomorphidae (150), Gryllidae (25), and Gryllotalpidae (8), while Tettigoniidae was recorded with only 6 individuals. Across the study, Shannon's Diversity Index (H’), Simpson’s Diversity Index (D’), Dominance, and Evenness were calculated as 3.065, 0.9418, 0.05819, and 0.7389, respectively, which reflects that orthopteran fauna is quite diverse in the surveyed forest habitats.