Moths of Delhi, India

Shashank Pathour1, Yash Sondhi2, J Komal3, Sanjay  Sondhi4, Sohail  Madan5, Naresh  Meshram3, S S Anooj3, Shashank Pathour6, Yash Sondhi7, J Komal8, Sanjay  Sondhi9, Sohail  Madan10, Naresh  Meshram11, SS Anooj1

1 ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute , New Delhi, India; 2 Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th St, 33199, Miami, United States; 3 ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute , Pusa Campus, 110012, New Delhi, India; 4 Titli Trust,, 49 Rajpur Road Enclave, Dhoran Khas, near IT Park, P.O. Gujrada, , Dehradun, , India; 5 Conservation Education Centre - ABWLS, Delhi Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary, Near Karni Singh Shooting Range, 110012, New Delhi, India; 6 ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa campus, New Delhi, India; 7 Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th St, Miami, United States; 8 ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute , Pusa Campus, Delhi, India; 9 Titli Trust,, 49 Rajpur Road Enclave, Dhoran Khas, near IT Park, P.O. Gujrada, , , India; 10 Conservation Education Centre - ABWLS, Delhi Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary, Near Karni Singh Shooting Range, Delhi, India; 11 ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute , , India

Corresponding author(s): Shashank Pathour (spathour@gmail.com), Yash Sondhi (theobald@fiu.edu), J Komal, Sanjay  Sondhi, Sohail  Madan, Naresh  Meshram, S S Anooj

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Resource Citation

Komal J, Shashank PR, Sanjay Sondhi, Sohail Madan, Yash Sondhi, Naresh M Meshram, Anooj SS (2021): Moths of Delhi, India. v1.3. Biodiversity Data Journal. Dataset/Checklist. http://ipt.pensoft.net/resource?r=moths_of_delhi&amp;v=1.8

Abstract

We present a comprehensive checklist of 331 moths species using 8 years of light trapping data (2012-2020) and examining about 2000 specimens from historical collections at the National Pusa Collection of ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi (NPC-IARI) spanning over 100 years (1907-2020)

Keywords: Checklist, Delhi, moths, Lepidoptera, IARI, Inventoryregional

Project details

Project title: Moths (Insecta: Lepidoptera) of Delhi, India: An illustrated checklist based on museum specimens and surveys
Personnel: Shashank Pathour, Yash Sondhi, J Komal, Sanjay  Sondh, Sohail  Madan,  Naresh Meshram,  Anooj  S S
Funding: This study was funded under DST-SERB Core Research Grant (No. CRG/2018/000753).
Study area descriptions/descriptor: Delhi

Data published through GBIF: https://ipt.pensoft.net/resource?r=moths_of_delhi

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: Comprehensive checklist of 331 moths species.

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: There have been several recent checklists, books, and publications about Indian moths, however much of this work has focused on biodiversity hotspots such North East India, Western Ghats, and Western Himalayas. There is a lack of published literature on urban centres in India, despite the increased need to monitor insects at sites with high levels of human disturbance.  In this study, we examine the moths of Delhi, the national capital region of India, one of the fastest growing mega metropolitan cities. We present a comprehensive checklist of 331 moths species using 8 years of light trapping data (2012-2020) and examining about 2000 specimens from historical collections at the National Pusa Collection of ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi (NPC-IARI) spanning over 100 years (1907-2020). The checklist comprises moths from 32 families spanning 14 superfamilies with Noctuidea (49.5%) and Pyraloidea (18.4%) being the two most dominant superfamilies. We provide links to images of live individuals and pinned specimens for all of moths, and provide detailed distribution records and provide an updated taxonomic treatment.
Coordinates: 90°0'0''S and 90°0'0''N Latitude; 180°0'0''W and 180°0'0''E Longitude 

Temporal coverage: 2012 - 2020

Temporal coverage: 1907 - 2020

Natural collections description

Parent collection identifier: http://grbio.org/institution/national-pusa-collection
Collection name: National Pusa Collection, Department of Entomology at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Delhi (NPC-IARI)
Collection identifier: http://grbio.org/cool/nwky-2b63
Specimen preservation method: Pinned

Methods

Method step description: 
- . 	Biodiversity of moths of the region was studied by an exhaustive exploration of the museum holdings of the National Pusa Collection, Department of Entomology at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Delhi (NPC-IARI) which is one of the largest insect repositories in Asia for agricultural pests since 1900s. The specimens of moths belonging to Delhi were sorted separately for the present study. A database has been created from individual specimens based on label data including the name of the collector, date of collection, method of collection, associated host plants and sex.
- . 	Identification and reconfirmation of all the specimens was done and were updated to their current taxonomic positions. All the representative species were photographed with a Cannon 70D with a 100mm macro lens. The micromoths were photographed with a digitalized camera Leica DFC 425C on the Leica 19205FA Stereozoom Automountage microscope.
- . 	Museum collection data and surveys, additionally, data from citizen science internet portals like the Moths of India (http://www.mothsofindia.org/; Sondhi et al. 2021), iNaturalist (https:// www.inaturalist.org) and India Biodiversity (http:// indiabiodiversity. org/) were also used to prepare the checklist.
Study extent description: Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR- IARI), Pusa (28.04° N, 77.12° E), Rashtrapathi Bhawan (28.61° N, 77.19° E) and Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary (28.4762º N, 77.23º E). 
Sampling description: Field surveys were conducted from 2012 to 2020 by setting up light traps.This accounted for a total of 73 survey nights. The light traps were set after sunset during the evening hours generally for 5 hours from 6 to 11 PM using a Mercury vapor bulb of 160W. Most of the times electrical mains were available for surveys but a portable diesel-based generator was used to set the light traps at the locations without the source of electricity. All the moths were photographed in field using a Cannon 70D with a 100mm macro lens.

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Moths of Delhi, India
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: https://ipt.pensoft.net/archive.do?r=moths_of_delhi
Publication date of data: 2021-09-04
Language: English
Licences of use: Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2021-07-15
Hierarchy level: Dataset