AGGREGATION OF GRASSHOPPERS (ORTHOPTERA) FROM THAR DESERT, SINDH

At the present survey from May 2016 to October 2017 a total of 856 specimens were collected from Thar Desert, Sindh. Collected samples were classified into 2 Families i.e. Acrididae and Pyrgomorphidae, 6 Subfamilies and 13 species i.e. Hilethera aeolopoides (Uvarov, 1922), Aiolopus thalassinus thalassinus (Fabricius, 1781), Heteracris littoralis (Rambur, 1838), Acrida exaltata (Walker, 1859), Atractomorpha acutipenis blanchardi Bolívar, 1905, Pyrgomorpha (Pyrgomorpha) bispinosa deserti Bey-Bienko & Mishchenko, 1951, Acrotylus humbertianus Saussure, 1884, A. longipes subfasciatus Bei-Bienko, 1948, A. longipes longipes (Charpentier, 1845), Ochrilidia geniculata (Bolivar, 1913), Truxalis eximia eximia Eichwald, 1830, Locusta migratoria (Linnaeus, 1758) and Oxya hyla hyla Serville, 1831. Further, taxonomic keys, photographs, illustrations and affected host plants were highlighted to know the actual pest status of existing species. In addition to this, Biodiversity Index, Simpsons Index of Biodiversity and Species richness also calculated for each species