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Diversity of Foliar Gall Insects and Its Associated Host Plants from the Eastern Himalayan Foothills, India

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Abstract

The foliar gall diversity and its obligate insect fauna of Gorumara National Park in the Dooars region of the Eastern Himalayan foothills were studied. Gall-affected plants were encountered in four forest-vegetative-zones using randomly manipulated grid-coordinated transects. A significant variation in foliar gall infestation was observed across the forest’s typed vegetations. The plant families Moraceae, Anacardiaceae, and Urticaceae were noted to be more prone to galls than other taxa. Most gall-inducing insects were host specific, indicating their specialist nature, whereas plants from Anacardiaceae and Moraceae families have been identified as natural hosts for several gall-inducing insects, indicating their generalist nature. Psyllids (Psyllidae) and Triozids (Triozidae) from Hemiptera and Cecidomyiids (Cecidomyiidae) from Diptera have been identified as the primary gall inducers, in addition to some species from Hymenoptera and Acarine fauna. In comparison with hypophyllous galls, epiphyllous galls were more common on foliages. The number of galls on leaves was proportional to the size of the leaf. The prevalence of galls was widespread throughout the mixed vegetation of the forest. The current study sheds light on plant–herbivore galling interactions in an underexplored region of the Sub-Himalayan forest ecosystem.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Entomology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Calcutta, 35, Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700019, India

    Poulami Hazra, Sampurna Roy, Avishek Dolai & Amlan Das

  2. Department of Botany, Vivekananda College, 269, Diamond Harbor Road, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700063, India

    Ashutosh Mukherjee

Authors
  1. Poulami Hazra
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  2. Sampurna Roy
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  3. Avishek Dolai
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  4. Ashutosh Mukherjee
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  5. Amlan Das
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Correspondence to Amlan Das.

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The authors have no known financial or personal interests that could have influenced this paper. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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Hazra, P., Roy, S., Dolai, A. et al. Diversity of Foliar Gall Insects and Its Associated Host Plants from the Eastern Himalayan Foothills, India. Natl. Acad. Sci. Lett. 47, 205–211 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40009-023-01327-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40009-023-01327-7

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