Aquatic beetles (Dytiscidae, Gyrinidae, Haliplidae, Hydrophilidae, Noteridae) of the Papikonda National Park from the Eastern Ghats, Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

The study documents 53 species of aquatic coleoptera belonging to 20 genera and 5 families (Dytiscidae, Gyrinidae, Haliplidae, Hydrophilidae and Noteridae) from Papikonda National Park, Andhra Pradesh, India for the first time. Hydromorpha spinicollis nordica Mouchamps, 1959, Lacconectus fulvescens Motschulsky, 1855 and Peschetius nilssoni (Sheth, Ghate, Dahanukar and Hájek, 2021) are recorded for the first time from the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Among the reported 53 species, five species (Cybister rugulosus (Redtenbacher, 1844), L. regimbarti Brancucci, 1986, P. nilssoni, P. toxophorus Guignot, 1942 and Gyrinus convexiusculus Macleay, 1871) have been noted as endemic to India. The most common and widespread species in the national park are Hydroglyphus flammulatus (Sharp, 1882), Hydaticus discindens Walker, 1858 and Sternolophus acutipenis (Nasserzadeh and Komarek, 2017). The study showed that temporary pools are holding more species than permanent water bodies. The zoogeographical distribution of all the species is also given.