JEMLA NAIK, D.JAGADEESH, KANASOGI2021-09-302021-09-302018-08-01Th-12097https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810176475Urbanization is a dominant process of land alteration converting rural undisturbed areas into urban land. Now a days, the world is facing greatest ever biodiversity crisis due to urbanization, which leads to extinction of many species of plants and insects. The present study examined changes in abundance and diversity of beetles across the rural-urban gradients of Bangalore district during 2017-18. Using four methods of collection (light trap, sweep net, malaise trap and bee bowl) a total of 20,978 beetles of 271 morpho-species belongs to 30 families were collected. Among beetles, Staphylinidae contribute 72 per cent followed by Scarabaeidae and Carabidae. The light trap was found more efficient and effective for beetle collection as ninetythree per cent of total beetles were collected compared to other methods used in the study. The abundance and diversity of beetle were recorded more in post monsoon compared to pre-monsoon. During both the seasons, highest number of beetles were collected from rural gradients (8034) followed by peri-urban (6580) and urban gradients (5006). Shannon diversity index value was highest in peri-urban areas (H’=3.85) followed by rural (H’=3.81) and urban (H’=3.62). But, there were no significant differences were observed in both abundance and diversity of beetles across the gradients. Beetle diversity had shown positive correlation with diversity of vegetation. The present findings suggest that beetle can be used as a bio-indicator as it contributes 40 per cent of total insects species collected. Further, ecological health of a given area can be determined easily using beetle diversity.EnglishThesis