Distribution and diversity of white Grub beetles across agro-ecological zones in Uttarakhand, India.

The study was conducted to assess scarab beetle diversity and abundance in different agroecological zones of Uttarakhand. Total of 17,460 and 10,523 beetles were collected in the years 2020 and 2021, from 7 locations. The beetle fauna represented 34 genera and 101 species of 5 subfamilies (Aphodiinae, Dynastinae, Melolonthinae, Rutelinae, and Scarabaeinae). Maximum species richness was recorded in Hawalbagh (71 species) and maximum species diversity was recorded in the genus Anomala (17 species). Overall, Maladera similana (Brenske, 1899) (12.1%) dominated the collection, followed by Anomala dimidiata (Hope, 1831) (6.93%) and Xylotrupes gideon (Linnaeus, 1767) (6.25%). The subfamily Melolonthinae dominated in terms of species richness (38 species) and species abundance (49.77%). The highest species richness was recorded in Hawalbagh, dominance (0.054), Simpson index (0.946), Shannon index (3.381), Brillouin index (3.370), Menhinick richness index (0.524), Margalef richness index (7.129), Fisher alpha diversity index (9.363), and Chao-1 index (71.75). However, the species distribution was more uniform in the Chaukhutiya region as indicated by Buzas and Gibson's evenness index (0.712) and Pielou's evenness index (0.899). The beta diversity was observed to be less than 50% between all the study locations except 52.87% between Gwaldam and Mukteshwar. Thus, the diversity assessed through various indices revealed rich white grub diversity in Uttarakhand.