DIVERSITY OF ODONATES IN NANDANKANAN ZOOLOGICAL PARK WITH RANGE EXTENSION NOTES OF WHITE DARTLET (Agriocnemis pieris) IN ORISSA, INDIA

摘要

Nandankanan Zoological Park (20°13'N; 85°50'E) is one of the major conservation areas of international importance for wildlife, housing a variety of endangered and endemic animals in Orissa State, India. It is completely surrounded by forest area which was declared a Wildlife Sanctuary in 1979 by the Forest Department of Orissa, together with a botanical garden and Kanjia Lake. Encompassing an area of 4.37 km~2, the park is blessed with natural moist deciduous forest and good water facilities throughout the year. Basically, four types of vegetation are found in Nandankanan, i.e., Tropical Dry Deciduous Forest, Tropical Semi Evergreen Forest, Scrub Forest and Thorny forest. Due to the different types of vegetation, it houses a variety of lesser known fauna, especially among the Odonates (Dragonflies and Damselflies), which are one of the least studied groups of insects (Caastella, 1987). In Orissa, only a few studies have been carried out on Odonates, such as Laidlaw (1915), Fraser & Drover (1922), Srivastava & Das (1987), Mitra (2000), Sethy & Siddiqi (2007) and Das et al., (2010). Earlier surveys showed that no study has been carried out so far from this region on Odonates, hence an attempt was made to study the odonata fauna of the park and also to create awareness to conserve these fascinating insects.