JAMSHORO: A Sindh University zoology scholar Waheed Ali Panhwar has discovered the five new species of tettigonioidea (Ensifera) existing in Pakistan.

The researcher also re-described 13 species & 29 regional records of ensifera except that of discovering five new species of tettigonioidea in the world of science under the supervision of Dr. Riffat Sultana and co-supervision of Dr. Muhammad Saeed Wagan. The scholar unearthed it in his final PhD seminar which was organized here at Video Conference Room of the university on Thursday.

He on the occasion successfully defended his final PhD thesis at the seminar titled “Studies on the systematic and ecological status of tettigonioidea (Ensifera) of Pakistan”.

Renowned zoologist & scientist of Punjab University Lahore Prof Dr Naeem Khan especially participated in the seminar and evaluated the thesis of the scholar.

The zoology scholar Waheed Ali Panhwar successfully defended his thesis amid tight question & answer session and thus his PhD thesis was declared successful and the same was sent to Board of advanced studies and research (BASR) for further approval.

It may be noted that 14 research articles of Waheed Ali Panhwar have been published in national & international journals. Besides, he has completed his PhD in ever youngest age of 26 years and 7 months which is a record lowest age of completing PhD.

In his presentation, the scholar said that Pakistan was a biogeographically diverse region mostly due to its rich vegetation and favorable climatic condition which made it trouble-free region for breeding of different insects groups including grasshoppers.

“Tettigonioidea are phytophagous insects whereas some of the species are important pests of agricultural crops while many species are ecologically associated with forest biocenoses, damaging trees and shrubs” he said and added that in addition to herbaceous plants, these facts extend the range of injurious plants to forest, fruit orchards, berry shrubs and grasses.

As a result of this work, he said, a total of 4379 adults were collected from different climatic zone of the country during the year 2011-2014 and field sites included that of agriculture land, forests, fruit orchards, grapevine, berry shrubs, hilly, semi desert as well as desert areas, trees, shrubs, herbs and grasses.

He said the collected material was sorted out into 47 species of tettigonioidea pertaining to 07 sub-families including pseudophyllinae, phaneropterinae, conocephalinae, tettigoniinae, hexacentrinae, mecopodinae and decticinae belonging to 20 tribes, 22 genera, and constricted 29 new records to Pakistan and 05 new species that added to science.

The scholar said phaneropterinae and conocephalinae showed its wide diversity in Pakistan and over all percentage of conocephalinae was recorded significantly highest i-e: 55.7% followed by 43.6% of phaneropterinae while significantly least percentage i-e: 0.36%, 0.11%, and   0.06% for tettigoniinae, pseudophyllinae and mecopodinae respectively and 0.04% was recorded for hexacentrinae and decticinae.

“Overall, these finding suggests that phaneropterinae and conocephalinae were collected in large numbers and having prevailing status throughout the country on contrary to this, other studied subfamilies i-e: hexacentrinae, mecopodinae    and decticinae were considered rare due to less numbers and species. Beside this, pseudophyllinae with single genus Sathrophyllia   that include 4 species were studied for the first time from Pakistan,” he said.

He said that 29 new records of tettigoniidae were enlisted to Pakistan that includes: Sathrophyllia nr. rugosa (Linnaeus, 1758) , S. femorata to sub-family Pseudophyllinae, surprisingly, sub-family Phaneropterinae possess maximum new records i-e: Trigonocorypha unicolor, Stål, 1873 T. angustata, Uvarov, 1922 , T. nr. angustata,Uvarov,1922, Phaneroptera bivittata B-Bienko, 1954 , Holochlora nigrotympana Ingrisch, 1990 , H. venosa Stål, 1873 , H. astylata Karny, 1926 ,  Ducetia japonica, Thunberg, 1815, Letana rufonotata (Serville, 1838), L. bulbosa Ingrisch, 1990, Tylopsis lilifolia Fabricius, 1793, Isopsera spinosa Ingrisch, 1990, .I. stylata Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1878,  I. pedunculata Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1878, I. astylata Karny, 1926, Himertula kinneari (Uvarov, 1923) and  H. marmorata (Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1891) and  there are 4 new records in sub-family Tettigoniinae  viz: Calopterusa balucha (Uvarov, 1932), Platycleis grisea (Fabricius, 1781), Glyphonotus sinensis Uvarov, 1939 and Eupholidoptera karatolosi Mofidi & Quicke 2007 and 2 each to sub-family Hexacentrinae,  Mecopodinae and Decticinae, Hexacentrus unicolor Serville, 1831 , H. pusillus Redtenbacher, 1891, Mecopda platyphoea Walker, 1870 , Afromecopoda monroviana (Karsch, 1886), Decticus verrucivorous (Linnaeus, 1758)  and D. Albifrons (Fabricius, 1775).

During the present study, he said, it was observed that Phaneroptera spinosa, Bei-Bienko, P. roseata, Walker of Phaneropterinae and Conocephalus maculates (Le-Guillou) and Euconocephalus incertus Walker to Conocephalinae were widely distributed species, the possible reason of this spread might be feeding on nutritional rich vegetations and favourable climatic condition of region. Besides this, single individual each of Phaneroptera gracilis Bei-Bienko, Trigonocorypha nr. angustata Uvarov and Letana rufonotata (Serville) of  Phaneropterinae :  Platycleis intermedia (Serville), Tettigonia caudata (Charpentier), Glyphonotus sinensis Uvarov, Eupholidoptera karatolosi  Mofidi & Quicke   to Tettigoniinae  were considered as rare. In addition to this, Tylopsis lilifolia Fabricius was restricted to Baluchistan. Further, information on the distribution and ecology of the all species is given and a key to Pakistan species of Tettigonioidea is presented. Moreover, the record collection of sub-families Phaneropterinae and Conocephalinae represents the first comprehensive record of the entomological fauna of Pakistan.

In addition to this, he said, the distribution of all previously recorded species has been greatly extended to the localities. The taxonomic keys for various taxa have also been constructed for their future identification. Nevertheless, according to the scholar, a brief description of each supra-generic category of tettigonioidea along with photographs and synonymy is also documented.

Additionally, the detailed list of host plants from Pakistan was also composed for the first time he said adding that the correct identification of species obtained from this study will be instrumental in understanding and devising the population management strategies to adopt control measures at appropriate time. “These findings supplied important basis and data for integrated Pest Management (IPM) of tettigonioidea biodiversity conservation and grassland restoration in Pakistan” Mr. Panhwar said.

In addition to this, he said, the description of new species and new records give the indication that if more extensive surveys of the unexplored areas might lead to discovery of new species from this area. Furthermore, present study is also responsible in making conceptual contribution like population thinking, he said adding that it is also responsible in solving the problems of multiplication of species cause its greatest contributions lies in the understanding of the structure of species and of the evolutionary role of peripheral population. Present study will also prove useful tool for the study of development of behavioral sciences and it is a key to the study of phylogenetic, cladistics analysis can be undertaken unless all the species of tettigonioidea importance are identified. This research work is an initiative step towards the identification of tettigonioidea fauna of Pakistan.

It may be noted that for this study financial grants were received from Pakistan Science Foundation Islamabad (PSF) and Higher Education Commission Islamabad (HEC).