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Language: English
The short horned grasshoppers belong to the superfamiiy Acridoidea under the Order Orthoptera. The Acrididae and Pyrgomorphidae are exclusively herbivorous occuring abundantly and are most injurious to agricultural crops, vegetables and pasture fields in India. Many species of grasshoppers have already been recorded as occasional pest but the damage is usually local and is confined to native crops so that it does not attract much attention of farmers and scientists. But recently various development schemes have entailed mechanised production of different crops in India and this has led to identification of 19 species of grasshoppers as major or minor pests on the basis of changes in soil condition, rotation of crops, temperature and humidity etc. It is therefore obvious that these conditions are conducive to these species, making 14 of them minor pests and 5 major pest on the basis of maximum visual infestations.
Keeping the above background in view, the present investigation has been carried out with the following main objectives.
1} To study the general morphology and systematics of economically common important grasshoppers.
2) To study the distribution and abundance of grasshoppers of different crops and vegetables.
3) To study the nymphal taxonomy of the different instars of pest grasshoppers.
4) To study the seasonal abundance of grasshoppers in relation of physical factors in some localities in West Bengal.
